A Conversation with Benny Johnson on the Problems LA Faces, the Change We Need, & Vision for a Better Future

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer

Episode: A Conversation with Benny Johnson on the Problems LA Faces, the Change We Need, & Vision for a Better Future
Date: January 22, 2026
Hosts: Spencer Pratt (Heidi Montag is away during this episode)
Guest: Benny Johnson

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Overview

This powerful conversation dives into Los Angeles’ ongoing crises—wildfire recovery failures, bureaucratic corruption, disaster profiteering, and rampant homelessness—through the lived experience of host Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades fire, and the investigative insights of guest Benny Johnson. Together, they unpack the structural rot behind LA’s dysfunction, the human cost of bureaucratic negligence, failed leadership, and the vision and action needed to build a better, more accountable city.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Scene and Personal Stakes (01:51 – 04:00)

• Location and Backstory:
  The episode is recorded in the remnants of Spencer’s former Pacific Palisades home, destroyed in the recent fire. Heidi is absent, getting ready for a family trip, leaving Spencer solo to host Benny—whose presence excites both their teams.
• Raising Awareness:
  Spencer laments the media’s quick fade from covering the fire’s aftermath and the local government’s desire to “move on,” noting the one-year anniversary has already passed, yet rebuilding remains stagnant.
• Mission-Driven:
  Spencer makes clear this is a nonpartisan fight for his community and for truth:

  “Everything I do is just for accountability and the truth and justice and it would never be different depending on who people vote for.” (06:45, Spencer)

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2. Corruption, Accountability, and Recovery Failures (04:00 – 14:00)

• Inequity of Attention:
  Benny draws a stark contrast between media coverage of politicians’ scandals in red vs blue states, noting the absence of scrutiny for LA leaders who left during disaster:

  “Karen Bass was in fucking Ghana while your homes burn. Somebody explain that to me.” (07:48, Benny)

• Rebuilding Myths and Insurance Catastrophe:
  Spencer debunks the prevailing “record-speed” rebuild narrative, citing that only a handful of homes are actually being rebuilt, and slams the false comparison to Maui’s recovery pace.
  He details the insurance crisis post-fire, with thousands being dropped and many forced onto minimal, inadequate state plans or having to sell their lots at a loss due to new, costly building requirements.

  “Senior citizens paid for insurance 45 years. Got dropped on January 1st…house burned down, zero insurance.” (12:21, Spencer)

• Permitting and Fees:
  City promises to waive fees for fire victims went unfulfilled; bureaucracy remains immovable and punitive:

  “They burned my bathroom down and now I'm giving LA money for my porta potty on my dirt lot.” (15:15, Spencer)

• Class Prejudices and Demographic Realities:
  Most affected are long-time, non-wealthy residents—contrary to tropes about the Palisades being solely for the rich.

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3. Emotional and Social Devastation (18:02 – 20:00)

• Trauma and Loss:
  Benny highlights the deep psychological loss, expressing outrage over how families, seniors, and even pets perished due to failed evacuation and poor crisis response.

  “Lose a child, lose your home. Like, those are the worst things that can happen to you, right?” (18:02, Benny)

• Evacuation Failures:
  Spencer describes how authorities blocked people from rescuing pets and possessions, compounding the trauma.

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4. Leadership, State Corruption, and Fire Mismanagement (21:30 – 30:00)

• Message to Gavin Newsom:
  Despite political promises—"red tape cut, shovel ready tomorrow"—real recovery is nowhere in sight.
• “Raking” and Environmental Negligence:
  Spencer says “raking” dead brush (mocked in the past) would have saved lives and homes:

  “What Newsom made fun of the president about the raking would have saved our entire town…It’s such a simple thing.” (21:54, Spencer)

• Federal Monies Misused:
  Both speakers decry how “aid” intended for victims gets funneled into NGOs, bureaucratic salaries, and scammy initiatives:

  “If you want that money from the feds, you give it directly to the fire victims…not whoever on that grant.” (27:10, Spencer)

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5. Macro Problems: Homelessness & Urban Decay (29:18 – 35:08)

• Spencer’s Shift to Advocacy:
  The fire radicalized him on city/county dysfunction, expanding his activism to homelessness and animal welfare, seeing the “system” up close for the first time.
• The Reality of Homelessness:
  Both critique the “homeless industrial complex,” where non-profits, NGOs, and the city profit off maintaining homelessness, importing the unhoused, and enabling rampant open drug use:

  “If you're making a salary, which some of these people are making, $1.2 million to stop homelessness...you’re bringing them out to LA...this is my business.” (32:50, Spencer) “It's immoral, it is indefensible...The city … are just handing out drugs like crazy.” (34:13, Benny)

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6. Policy and Accountability: What Needs to Change (35:08 – 43:00)

• Root Cause: Drugs First:
  Benny summarizes Joey’s (a local animal rescuer’s) prescription:

  “Start with the drug dealers…arrest them. Then tackle the rest.” (35:08, Spencer, paraphrasing Joey)

• Bureaucratic Incentives:
  Spencer suggests city leaders prefer rising deaths because it “helps their numbers” for “removing” the homeless, justifying more funding for their programs.

• Disaster Profiteering and Land Redevelopment:
  Both unpack how delays serve developers and the city:

  “They don’t care if the actual victims come back because eventually developers were going to come in. They’re going to make billions.” (39:44, Spencer) Upcoming developments will likely displace more former residents, turning single-family lots into profitable high-rises, benefiting political and business interests.

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7. Radicalization, Calls for Criminal Negligence Prosecutions (43:06 – 47:58)

• The True Cause of the Fire:
  The real arsonist, Spencer argues, is city/state environmental negligence—not just the scapegoated perpetrator.
• Plea for Justice:
  Spencer personally appealed to the Justice Department, seeking criminal prosecution for state and local leaders:

  “Newsom should be charged with criminal negligence. The mayor should be charged. Janice Quinones, LADWP. Criminal negligence.” (46:34, Spencer) Yet prosecutorial hesitation persists, concerned over political optics.

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8. Family, Faith, and Human Resilience (49:54 – 64:49)

• Personal Toll on Family:
  Spencer reflects on the profound impact on his children and aging parents.

  “Do you know what it's like … for anybody to have your 3 year old son ask … when are we going home?” (49:56, Spencer)

• Message to Young People:
  Stay rooted in facts—avoid partisanship, seek data and truth, not narratives.

  “If you want any movement…you have to be in facts and true facts, not facts from the people you want the facts, like the actual facts.” (52:57, Spencer)

• How to Fix LA:
  Start by ensuring public money goes directly to its intended purposes (fire recovery, homelessness solutions, etc.), not salaries or “vanity” NGO projects.

  “The numbers are so big that it's enough that we can save LA, we can save California. People who are taxed want their money to go to the things that they want fixed.” (56:55, Spencer)

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9. The Role and Responsibility of Celebrities (57:46 – 61:09)

• Lack of Peer Support:
  Spencer has had little support from “A-list” celebrities whose homes also burned:

  “I've reached out to a lot of actual, as how the internet would call, real celebrities whose houses burned down—ghosts. They just ignore me.” (59:28, Spencer)

• Industry Blacklisting:
  Speaking out has cost Spencer (lost ad deals, lost TV projects)—others are afraid to risk their careers or speaking "politically".

• True Advocacy:
  Benny contrasts Spencer’s activism with the typical disengagement or overseas focus of celebrities, calling it “inspiring”.

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10. Faith as Anchor Amidst Disaster (61:09 – End)

• Spiritual Perspective:
  Spencer credits his endurance to faith, reflecting on God’s purpose in testing him by taking his house and pushing him to use it for greater good.

  “If God were ever to burn somebody's house down...he burned my house down…so that's where I always go back. If God really wanted, like…and then I think, okay, what if I start saving lives by making changes in LA…maybe God didn't want all these dogs getting mutilated. So I start going to, like, the bigger picture…” (61:56, Spencer)

• Finding Purpose in Hardship:
  Benny ends by tying the story to a broader biblical arc:

  “That's how God works...bad things happen to people and God pulls them through to righteousness to…God's plan on the other side. It always happens that way.” (62:50, Benny)

• End Note:
  Both reaffirm that true change will only come when basic, apolitical decency—responsibility for one’s neighbor, fiscal honesty, and community action—comes back to LA and California.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bureaucratic Inhumanity:
  “They burned my bathroom down and now I'm giving LA money for my porta potty on my dirt lot.” (15:15, Spencer Pratt)

• On Mainstream Media Double Standards:
  “Ted Cruz was on vacation in Cancun…there were reporters sitting there waiting for him at the airport. He was hounded...Karen Bass was in fucking Ghana... while your homes burn.” (07:48, Benny Johnson)

• On Insurance / Rebuilding Crisis:
  “We got dropped when everyone got dropped...due to your GPS of a fire hazard area, you're no longer.” (11:50, Spencer Pratt)

• On Homelessness:
  “If you're making...$1.2 million to stop homelessness...you’re bringing [homeless] out to LA...this is my business, you know, if I was one of these corrupt demons, I would be doing that.” (32:50, Spencer Pratt)

• On Personal Cost and Family Pain:
  “Do you know what it's like...to have your 3 year old son ask, if not on a daily basis, every other day, when are we going home?” (49:56, Spencer Pratt)

• On Faith and Purpose:
  “If God were ever to burn somebody's house down that if he really wanted real change happen, he burned my house down....I'm feeling time to testify.” (61:56, Spencer Pratt)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• [01:51] - Spencer Pratt opens, sets the scene, introduces Benny Johnson
• [03:27] - Media disinterest; quick fade after disaster
• [07:48] - Benny on political hypocrisy in disaster responses
• [09:47] - Spencer details insurance/rebuilding debacle
• [12:21] - New, prohibitive construction requirements for rebuilding
• [15:15] - City nickel-and-diming fire victims
• [21:30] - Benny asks: What’s your message for Newsom?
• [21:54] - “Raking” controversy; how to prevent wildfires
• [27:10] - Do NGOs and government misspend disaster aid?
• [29:18] - Spencer becomes radicalized, broadens advocacy
• [32:50] - Homelessness as corrupt, money-driven system
• [35:08] - Joey’s plan: target drug dealers first
• [39:44] - Disaster profiteering and calculated land grab
• [46:34] - Should Newsom et al face criminal negligence charges?
• [49:56] - Family trauma, impact on kids and elderly
• [52:57] - Advice to young people: focus on facts, not politics
• [56:55] - Fixing LA starts with transparency in public spending
• [59:28] - Spencer: Celebrities "ghost" appeals for support
• [61:56] - Spencer’s faith: “I got merked for more”
• [62:50] - Benny: Suffering, faith, redemptive narrative
• [64:36] - Closing notes: Decency, collective will, faith

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Tone & Language

The entire discussion is raw, impassioned, stridently honest—often mixing dark humor, outrage, and hope. Both hosts and guest shift from biting sarcasm and pointed anecdotes to heartfelt reflections and practical proposals. Spencer’s language is direct, often emotionally charged, but underpinned by a steadfast drive to seek truth, exact accountability, and inspire action.

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This episode provides a bracing, inside-out critique of LA’s failures with an urgent call to activism, honesty, and neighborly decency—whether you’re a celebrity, politician, or average Angeleno.

Transcript

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[Spencer Pratt]

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[Spencer Pratt]

Oh no.

[Podcast Advertiser]

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[Spencer Pratt]

Welcome back to the Fame game. We are sitting in. My guest is sitting in what was my bathtub. I think I'm sitting in the mirror of our former bathroom in our beautiful house in Pacific Palisades. Just want to thank our guests for flying out here. I was respectfully unaware of your level until every single person has been tweeting or dming or exing me, whatever, saying you need to get Nick Shirley and Benny Johnson out to the Palisades and within like a week of people saying that here he is. So excuse my naivete of your background because I'm new to this world of fighting corruption and so but based off of my engagement, you have been doing this for a while.

[Guest Interviewer]

Spencer I have a 20 person team that works at my company and we have interviewed presidents, heads of states, we've interviewed governors, we've interviewed quite a few people in the political zeitgeist and ecosystem. My team has never been more hyped than me going on your podcast. They're so thrilled about this. I got a couple of chicks on my team that are really, really, really excited that I'm on Spencer Pratt's podcast.

[Spencer Pratt]

Well, Heidi, it is I share it with Heidi, but Heidi's getting her teeth cleaned from my dad. Shout out my dad, who's a dentist. She's not just cleaning her teeth for fun, but we have a big New York trip and unlike me, Heidi wants everything perfect. So that's why Heidi is not here to our audience. She's with my dad, which is still family here.

[Guest Interviewer]

And she's here.

[Spencer Pratt]

She's here in spirit. But thank you for coming out here. My biggest issue with the Palisades and why I've been fighting so hard is I've always been told two weeks after any natural disaster, you have that like, moment everyone cares. And then the world happens. And there's so many, you know, horrible news stories across the planet that to keep anyone's focus on something like this, even though 12 people did burn alive here due to negligence, there's people dying all over the world. So you can't keep people's interests. And the local media, I'm almost convinced either they're in with the local leaders on like perpetuating the lie cover up, or their audience just wants hope and they try to sell that because they'll stick to like, the rebuilding's so great, they'll tell you they'll come. This is my favorite comparison that these leaders say. They'll be like, this is so much faster than Maui. Like, hello, Los Angeles is right there. We're in one of the biggest cities. Maui is an island in the middle of ocean. You're trying to compare rebuilding on an island versus right next to where everything is. So that's this idea that there's this record rebuilding when I don't want to, you know, these numbers aren't exact. They're always making up. But I know there's only one house that's been, you know, there's one spec house that James, whatever. James. The, the developer people have their. Thomas James. That was the house that the leadership lied about saying, you know, and all those plans were pre fire. They were put in. So there's one spec house that was built and now I think one actual fire victim has a certification of occupancy. So that is. And then there's a third house that I know of. Greg. Greg, sorry, Greg, I don't remember your last name. A contractor who. Actually that's part of my CHP story I just exposed. He got a ticket from Newsom CHP in front of his burned out lot for no seatbelt. Because I was told by multiple chp. And again, I love chp. So I know the CHP are the ones telling me this, this isn't like me shading law enforcement. They don't want to be in the Palisades giving seat belt tickets. They're ordered to do this type of behavior. So, you know, I had one different CHP like, oh, you call this a Karen? I'm like, no, no, you guys aren't Karens. But when you're giving seat belt tickets, it's not your choice. But back to you, thank you for coming out because we need as many videos interviews because now they did the one year anniversary, they're like, oh, one year anniversary policies are like, oh, let's, let's move on. But if we let what Newsom did to Campfire Woosley, you know, the list of fires in California and respect to all those people that reach out to me and they're like, what about. And I'm always like, yeah, if my house burned in your town, I would, you know, so my goal once this is the lie here and the COVID up, I would love to go to these places like paradise that still hasn't been rebuilt and you know, put light onto that. But right now my life mission is to expose the corruption at ladwp, the city, the state. And I always go back to. And it's my biggest thing. I tell people, if Gavin Newsom was a Republican, if the mayor of LA was a Republican, if the LAD dwp Janice Quinones was a Republican picked person, I would not be any different. You think I would be sitting in my dirt covering up for anybody based off their political party. So everything I do is just for accountability and the truth and justice and it would never be different depending on who people vote for. And the other thing is I actually fight for my community, which I want to say 70% of them voted for Kamala Harris. So I'm actually that's the people that I have been fighting for for a year. So when people try to politicize this or the LA Times tries to label me, they're all incorrect because I would be doing the same no matter what political party burned my house down, my parents house down, and my town. So.

[Guest Interviewer]

But, well, here's where the politics would be different because we saw this with Ted Cruz. Ted Cruz was on vacation in Cancun when there was a hurricane that hit Texas. And there were reporters sitting there waiting for him at the airport. He was hounded. There's still memes, he still gets roasted for that every single day. Karen Bass was in fucking Ghana where, what, drinking cocktails. There's photos of it. She was like at a tiki party in Ghana. Somebody explained that to me.

[Spencer Pratt]

Can you.

[Guest Interviewer]

Have you ever gotten an explanation as to why during high fire season your mayor is sitting there in Africa while all of your homes burn? And one other thing, I looked this up on the way to come here and it makes me angry. I'm sorry, I don't like cursing, but like I, you know, it makes me angry. I see your hat. I'm sitting here in the rubble and it's just like affected me frankly, because I just drove through for the first time Palisades. I've never even been here before and I've never been to Palisades. I'm not rich enough, fancy enough. I don't have enough reality show credit to come here. But like, it looks so beautiful. It looks like such a nice community and so like such a gifted by God like area. I mean I just like we went up over the mountaintop and I see the water and the mountains and oceans meets the sea. It's such a truly gifted part of the world. And to let it all burn one is, is it's crime against humanity. And then what's happened is just further insults and crimes against humanity. There's like 2.7 million homes, new homes built in America last year. Spencer, you know this. New homes, like from the dirt, right up from nothing, presumably from nothing. Maybe even like worse than this because at least this is a lot that's plumbed and everything that this is. These are homes that are built like from nothing, that are given to new families. Yet you, as far as I know, have no homes built here. So what's that about exactly? Like, can you explain that? Like, how are millions of Americans and millions of other companies able to build brand new homes out of nothing? And you, you can't get like permits here a year out because we're a year out from the fire.

[Spencer Pratt]

So the first issue goes back to insurance. Newsom created an environment with his Ricardo Lara, who went on 90 vacations and you know, God knows what he was doing. They created an environment where again, you know, a lot of insurance people message me and like, I love everything you do, but you're not getting the facts right. I'm not anti insurance because I understand why they dropped everybody. If you leave 50 years of dead brush or dead fuel as you call it, surrounding the houses all the way up to their backyards and you don't maintain them and you don't make fire breaks and I'm sure these insurance companies also knew that LADWB had two empty reservoirs. And they'll argue and say, oh, that was for drinking water. The Santa Ynez reservoir was built for firefighting. The literal designer is in the LA Times quoted talking about when they built it, it was for firefighting. So now after everything's burned, they say, oh, that was for drinking water. No amount of water could have. It was never designed this city to. So first off, it's an insurance thing. Everyone got dropped and if you didn't get dropped, like for instance, we had farmers, I want to say for eight years. Oh my God, the hummingbird is on my dog's head. That's incredible. I see you, God. I see you, God. Doing great things. I love, I love all the hummingbirds. So.

[Guest Interviewer]

So can you quickly tell me that story because I'm gonna forget.

[Spencer Pratt]

Yeah, the hummingbirds. When my wife was pregnant with our first child, there was a little nest with a hummingbird egg. And of course me all into crystals and spiritual stuff. I'm googling like what's the sign of this? And obviously I find so many things that tell me I'm gonna have a magical baby. Like this hummingbird's a sign. So I started feeding that hummingbird and then they all started coming, they're all fighting and then I'm googling, how do I stop this? So you need more feeders. So next thing I have, you know, 60 to 100 feeders and now I'm getting the bags at Costco, like five pound bags of sugar weekly. And it's a full time job that I actually hated and now I miss it so much. But so that's the hummingbirds.

[Guest Interviewer]

It's just sugar water.

[Spencer Pratt]

Is that 4 cups filtered water? If you don't. If it's LA water, make sure to boil it, let it cool. Mix in the white cane sugar, not organic sugar, let it cool and then put in the feeder and clean your feeder often. So yes. But back to insurance. So then if like we had farmers for eight years, we got dropped when everyone got dropped just because everyone got emails that said due to your GPS of a fire hazard area, you're no longer. Because some people, some senior citizens paid for insurance. I swear to God, 45 years. Got dropped on January 1st, didn't have the. It's a holiday, they just had Christmas, didn't have time to re up, house burned down, zero insurance. So if you did have time, you were forced on this stopgap California fair plan which maxes out at 3 million. And like for us, you know, we had I think a million, two covered on our house, which is a 2,400 square foot house. But here's why most people can't rebuild. Now, up to new codes or zoning or permit. I need to put 1.2 million in caissons that weren't here for 40 years for multiple earthquakes. If that's the reason. And the funniest part about that is the same city that I'm suing, they will tell you in court, oh, we have no responsibility to make sure your house doesn't burn down. That's weird. That's not us. You care how I build my house, that I can't build it back? Because I need to have these caissons? What, because you're worried it's going to fall down the hill? Because you don't care when it burns down, so why do you care if it falls downhill? That would be my choice. I don't have anybody down here below that. If my house were to fall, it could just keep falling. So that's why we're not rebuilding, because there's all these new. I know multiple people that have already had to sell their dirt lots at a loss because now they have to put 60ft deep to the bedrock caissons. So that's insurance. Starts there. The fees that were supposed to be waived that were told by everyone, we're gonna waive your fees. That's a complete lie.

[Guest Interviewer]

The city Trump comes here, Gavin gets on the tarmac, Karen Bass, big smile, Adam Schiff. They're all sitting there at that press conference not too far from here, going like, we are going to get you building shovel ready tomorrow. Is that true?

[Spencer Pratt]

No, it's not true. And the fees, did they lie to you?

[Guest Interviewer]

Did they lie to the rest of America?

[Spencer Pratt]

It's 100% a lie to the point where our city council member was just at city council with all the fire victims. Everyone's in tears. They're begging the city council. And the city council of LA goes, oh, well, no, we didn't have. We don't have it in our budget to waive all this. And they're acting like, you know, whatever it is, maybe it's 100 million, 200 million that they were ever supposed to get that money. No, you let the town burn down. This isn't money. It's not like, oh, everybody chose to tear down their houses and. And now these people want to rebuild and they're trying to take money that was destined for the city to begin with. No, you're trying to. Here's the crazy part. They're also Taxing, that's another thing. All the stuff that you have to rebuild, the sales tax so LA is making money on, you know, I had to pay for my porta potty, I had to get a sales tax for that. So they burned my bathroom down and now I'm giving LA money for my porta potty on my dirt lot. So just simple things like that are just so crazy. And then the other thing is people are scared to rebuild first off, because a lot of people are concerned about the soil. I spent almost 4,000 testing my soil, which you probably have some elevated lead levels just a heads up. So don't breathe too hard. And you know, people are concerned, they're. Why invest so much money? When you drive around, 7,000 houses burn. And if you truly go look around, maybe there's three, 400 houses in the works. But the key what people don't realize, like that house, you hear up there building that was getting built before the fire. That whole foundation that was a big developer building a house. And I also want to go back to when you said you never come to the Palisades because, you know, to not enough reality credits or it was too rich. The most of the Palisades was generational houses passed down. Where we're talking great grandfathers had a place in Palisades. It passed it down, passes down. So the amount of seniors that are burnt out of here, that aren't rich, that aren't coming back. There was two mobile parks that burned down and they can't even get the state. They even tried to. One of the guys in there went to Sacramento, John Brown, and he had a whole initiative and he tried to get Senator Ben Allen to push the state senators to let these mobile park people have even the ability to rebuild. But there's a law in California that actually doesn't protect. It may even be the whole United States, don't quote me. But if you are, you have a property in a mobile home, you built it, you spent 2 million on it. Like because these are, you know, prefab. Some people have made nice things that look real cool. It burns down, you have no right, legal right to rebuild the owner of that dirt. So they were fighting for that State senators in a closed door, last minute thing. They had a bunch of people, all sudden that goes away. So you have mobile home people that now can't come back. The argument of like, oh, we're going to try to get, you know, people are like, there's affordable housing, they're trying to put it in the palace it was already here. There was apartments, there was condos. There was an entire world ecosystem of all sorts of tiers of people with money. So the idea of palaces being this like, rich community. Yes. There were movie stars that came here and bought the big houses that you never hear from because they already bought new houses. And the Palisades is dead to them. They can't acknowledge why it burned down because then they're. The people they put in power look bad. So that's. That's unfortunate. But yeah, it's not this rich. You know, the, you know, it's obviously not this poor place, but it's not what, you know, people in the comments section, oh, boo hoo hoo. Rich people's houses burn down. No, it's actually most of the people cannot rebuild.

[Guest Interviewer]

I think it's terrible if anyone's house burns down. I think it's terrible if the White House burns down. I think it's terrible if the mayor's house here burns down. Like, this is a, it's a bad thing when people lose their homes. It goes like this. Lose a child, lose your home. Like, those are the worst things that can like, happen to you, right? Lose your family, lose your home. Like, because your home is actually where your family is, where your memories are. It's where like the personhood of your family, like, it is where you bring your babies home to, like, you're talking about with the hummingbirds. Like, you miss the hummingbird feeders because it's like, ties you to this place. It's like your soul, your spirit here. When somebody has a new, when somebody buys a new house, when somebody buys their first home and when they like, have their first kid. These are like similar energies, right, for people. And it's, it's, it's so violating that they've treated you like this. And I'm looking at these burned up trees. I'm driving up here to meet you and I'm looking around and I'm just furious. I, like, don't get angry. I'm pretty glass half full kind of guy, sunny side of the street. And I'm just furious because I'm seeing these businesses, all these homes, all of the, like, most of the homes, like, nobody got to evacuate, right? Like nobody got to take their stuff out. Like, yeah, nothing. So, like, all your memory's gone, all your photo albums. I know people who lost it all. Like pets.

[Spencer Pratt]

They didn't let people come back and get their pets. Multiple tons of people know that their animals burned alive because when they came, they closed it, they closed it, but you still could have gotten in and got your pet. They closed Sunset and you couldn't get in and people could not get their pets. So you bring it to like really think about these people that didn't care about everything burning down, then also didn't let people go grab their pet, which you easily could have got your pet. You know, there was plenty of time from when the fire started at 10:30 in the morning till when it was really cooking off in the middle of the night. You could have got I was here on this street till 7 o' clock at night. I could have gone into any house and got a pet.

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[Spencer Pratt]

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[Guest Interviewer]

What is your message to Gavin Newsom? Because the leaders of California, when Trump was out here, stared straight down the barrel of the camera and said, we will cut all red tape shovel ready tomorrow. I just drove through 30 minutes of the Palisades and I didn't see anything built. Maybe some dirt's been pulled up, but I didn't see anything.

[Spencer Pratt]

You know my biggest I got you Know so many things on that. But the first thing that comes to my mind because you reference the president is when I first came to this, I watched this film Hotshots about the Forest service guys and the firefighter. And then I connected with the director who embedded with them for six years. And this guy, Gabriel Mann has really helped point me and all the right people to follow the, you know, the Federal Fire Service guys like Bobby Garcia, these legends and. And when you really look into this, you see that what Newsom made fun of the president about the raking would have saved our entire town and 12 people wouldn't have burned alive. Because what people don't. It's such a simple thing when you Google. Because I was like, what As a naive person. What are you talking about? You Google firefighting, raking and then you see, oh, it's these dozers, these big bulldozers and they got these big specialized rake things that clear the dead brush from the state parks that surround communities. So that I go back to. That's the. That was where the fatal error. Just not listening after they did that. I guess he probably told them after. I don't know if it was campfire where they did that last fire when he was president. They walked through it and he's like, you got to start raking. I don't know when it happened, but that was like this joke that Newsom kept tweeting and now I know so much about that is why people died. That's why we lost 7,000 structures. Because even if the LADWP didn't have the water in the reservoirs, if we had had a for dead brush maintenance like the president was trying to tell him or fire breaks around our community, it would have given time for the firefighters to get up on the hills and dig in like they would tell you and have a chance to fight the fire. But it just right up onto the communities you. So yeah, people will argue, oh, some houses would have still burned. Again, I'm not saying they wouldn't. Seven thousand houses don't burn if you clear the dead brush. So, you know, moving forward, you know, whoever is our next governor, like right now, this is as. This is our time to get ahead of the brush maintenance. At least for this community you drive over the next is terrifying to think next year or before the Olympics, Bel Air Canyon, God forbid, could easily burn down Hollywood Hills. Easily burned down. No brush maintenance. I talked to the head of the LAFDA brush clearance unit. He it's one guy now there's the budgets are so Low. And then the scariest part is, and you know, because I know you came out here for fraud, and it's not as flashy as, you know, Somalis taking money from the leering center or whatever, but Newsom. Newsom has taken federal money to actually maintain his state parks as long as he's been the governor. What he does is he lies on it. He says, he treats it. He does these. They have all this PR ways to say that they're doing what they're not doing. They're. Well, I know for a fact they didn't do anything in the Palisades. So, you know, that's a. That's a fact. But, you know, so the list of why the red tape and, you know, what could be done on that level, that's, you know, I actually don't know the power of what the governor could do because he already created such a bad situation that I think the ship sailed with the insurance. I think he should have stepped in a long time ago and made sure all the homeowners could actually have insurance in this community. So, you know, and then, you know, like, he's right now demanding, like the letter, like, I don't know if it was 44 billion, and then it went down to 35 billion. And it lists all these grants. It looks like the fire aid scam, just all these NGOs. If you want to demand $40 billion to the federal government to rebuild for victims, that list needs to literally have all the names of the underinsured, the people dropped, what they need to get their houses back. If you want that money from the feds, you give it directly to the fire victims, not whoever on that grant. NGO therapy and God knows what the, you know, the list was like. Like a scary comedy movie. And it was the exact fire aid scam. And then when you look into fire aid, even the lawyers that were hired to defend fire aid, in their defense, little paper, they say several of these NGOs gave direct to the fire victims. I asked Google, ChatGPT Pro, Gronk, Premium, whatever, I asked everyone, what's the definition of several? There wasn't one AI Google search engine that gave me more than 10. So on a list of, I want to say 200 and maybe 250 NGOs that took the 100 million that people gave to help the fire victims. The own law firm to defend fire rate said several went directly to the fire victims. So that is the problem that then expands across California with the homelessness and, and the issues, the money that people actually Want, you know, whether you're a taxpayer, you're just a nice charitable person that wants to help a homeless person help a fire victim. It doesn't go to where it's supposed to. It goes to salaries, it goes to bonuses, goes to friends, it goes to dinner. God knows what it goes to, but it does not go to the people who need it. And that's my concern. When people are like, this is Spencer. You know, people come to me. It's like, you got to get the feds to get the money. Like, I already. I've been fighting fire aid for a year. That's 100 million. You think I want to fight the federal government to give Newsom $35 billion to help fire victims? No, no, no, no, no. We need a special board of all parties involved, whether Democrats, Republicans. I don't care who you are, but everyone needs to be involved and it needs to really look at the victims and how to get funds directly to them rebuilding. Because the infrastructure is here. They already came in and re put the wire, even though they should have underground it. So the water works, the electricity works. What is that 34 billion going to do if it's not literally to build the fire victims houses back? So if they, if he comes with a new letter to the president that says, here are all the people that got dropped. Here are the people that don't have enough insurance. Here are the people that did have insurance, but the insurance companies won't take their toxic walls out of the house because, oh, it didn't burn down. You just have to live with every single thing that's going to give your kids cancer because that's not covered. So there's so many things that you could do, you know, and so that is my issue with how, you know, and Newsom's out, so we should already is done. Like, I don't even. I'm more waiting for the next governor and somebody who will make that, you know, because there's no way the federal government's handing that Newsom one more dollar. Because it's clear where, where is all the, you know, you go drive around la, go drive around. Where is all the money if we're paying the highest taxes, he already owes, I think the federal government like 20 billion, you know, so it's the only.

[Guest Interviewer]

Guy who didn't repay Covid.

[Spencer Pratt]

Yeah, so.

[Guest Interviewer]

So that's a great question because you've been so such a. Such a intricate part of LA culture, right? You are synonymous with LA. What's happened in this city in the last 20 years.

[Spencer Pratt]

You know, that is one of the reasons why, besides the Palisades, why I've expanded my fight. Because I realize, you know, so many people when I started fighting for the Palisades, they're like, start sending me their stories and they're like, what about us and what. You know, that's why now I'm like a full time dog advocate for all the dogs on skid row getting tortured. Because, you know, you close your eyes to all this and you know, to be honest, until my house burned down, I didn't want to know what was going on in the world. I have my simple life. I've spent hours just feeding hummingbirds, took my kids down the street to the public elementary school we did. Ay. So I made my Snapchat videos that made enough to have organic groceries. I have my own thing that they burned down and made me have to really open my eyes to so much. That's just terrible that I've been just like, like, don't look to left, don't look right, just get back to my utopia. But now they burned down my utopia. I don't have that. So now I have to expand and fight for where I grew up. And, you know, I repped LA to the point where, like, it was cringe. Like I used to throw up west side hand gestures in. On, like on red carpets in my 20s, you know, like, I only listen to Tupac.

[Guest Interviewer]

Please get a West side here, please. Just one, Just one.

[Spencer Pratt]

They just share that old photo. I was like, oh, my God, I'm. I am. I was. I invented this cringe thing. So, you know, when I grew up in la, just to give you a reference of how different it was, driving on the west side, there was two homeless people on 4th and Santa Monica in front of my elementary school, there was Mirror man. And he was always in the mirror, smiling. If he looked away from the mirror, you get a wave. And then on, right on West Channel, there was Broom man. And Broom man was always keeping channel clean. He was so serious about it. And that was my experience of like, what the streets, you know, literally living in la, driving. And then as these years have happened, it's just turned in. Also, I lived on Skid Row for college, not on the actual Skid Row above it in a loft on 4th and Main. So I also, in college, I know Skid Row was one block. It wasn't Los Angeles, it was one block. It was very sad then, but from my perspective, people were just on drugs. You know, you were choosing to be there in the sense because you were a drug addict, that when I say choice addiction, once they're there, because that's where the dealers are. And the more I learn about right now skid row, because I now I'm asking all these people and trying to get questions. The biggest problem is drugs. And if the leaders and elect officials hand everybody brand new fentanyl pipes, hand everyone needles and allow open use drugs, where if, if I go right now down the street, set up this bench and I, you know, wear, you know, a nicer little outfit and I start smoking fentanyl, they are arresting me because they're going to get money out of me. They can, you know, I actually don't know why I get arrested. I would assume because they know they can get money, but I'm getting arrested. Yet you drive around la, everywhere you go are people doing drugs everywhere. It was starting to come into the Palisades to the point where in front of Palisades elementary there was a homeless person. Other people will say, unhoused person cleaning her vagina in front of children at 7:45 in the morning on the sidewalk every day. And if she wasn't cleaning her vagina, she was going number two on the sidewalk. You'd call lapd, they would come, they'd say, hey, stop cleaning your vagina right here. That's it. They drive away. This is what was coming into the Palisades. It's not like, you know, it's all over Santa, mon. It's. It's not skid row like when I went to college. It's not skid row is Los Angeles. I'm sure it's all over California, but it comes back to drugs. And that's like the main thing. Obviously it's back to the fire aid thing. People spend billions of dollars for the homeless industrial complex, but they don't want it to end. Because if you're making a salary, which some of these people are making, $1.2 million to stop homelessness, you're going and finding homeless people in other states and you're buying them a plane ticket or you're getting a bus ticket and you're bringing them out to la, you're going to say, oh, we'll take care of you. Come out to la. Here's a phone, here's a card. Because this is my business, you know, if I was one of these corrupt demons, I would be doing that, you know. So that is the problem is it's created so much money. And even on the lower tier, we're talking Hundreds of thousands of dollars. So you know, again, there may be the few good NGOs, but when we're talking billions of dollars, there's some, some real.

[Guest Interviewer]

It's immoral, it is indefensible. If you have a brother who's a alcoholic and a drunk driver and you give him a bottle of scotch and the car keys and you tell him to go drive, you're committing a crime. You know, it's a more, it's an immorality, right? It's indefensible to a judge, he goes kill someone. It's indefensible. You could get put in jail, you could be accessory to that. The city of la, I've been down the skid row. We've spent hours there on this trip. They're just handing out drugs like crazy. There's like little drug dens and they're taxpayer funded. They have little churches set up that hand out drugs to clean pipes, clean needles, clean foil, all of it. Like not only encouraging the drug use, but making more like wanting more of it. I think it is indefensible, it is immoral. What's happening here is so evil and it has to stop. How do you clean up la, man? Because I'm driving downtown, I'm like looking around. This is the third world, this is a ghost town.

[Spencer Pratt]

So Joey, who's saving all the dogs that are being tortured and killed, he's on skid row every night, every day. I just was texting with him last night. I said, if you have the power to, to get, to solve homelessness, where does it start? Because he's there every day, every night he goes first off, he said all the Escalades and teslas and the BMWs that are pulling up every night and every day that are obviously the drug dealers, arrest these drug dealers. So start, you know, people will be like, you know, the homeless is a problem. Well, let's go to the drug dealers, let's get that. He said, it's clear who are the people selling the drugs. It's, it does not take there. It's the nicest cars pulling up and they're selling the drugs. So go after the drug dealers first. So that way this may change where everyone's hanging out. If you can just sell drugs with no problem on these streets, you know, then why stop? Why are people not going to hang out there? So we gotta start with the drugs, you know, and that was the big like. And then we can go from there. Because if everyone's high on fentanyl and that's the other thing, you know, the numbers are so cooked in the sense that there's city leaders that will brag like, oh, we removed 1500 people in the last year off the streets when 1300 people OD'd that year. And they don't say, but 13 of them died and were removed and are in the cemetery. So they actually, I'm convinced now in my seeing how evil these people are. They're like, oh, the more we kill, let die, you know, by drugs and ODing, it'll help our numbers. So it looks like we're removing them and we still get the money to launder through our friends for the homeless industrial complex. But, you know, I, you know, earlier we had a younger 25 year old guest on and I feel like the new generation, they're done with, they don't want this either. So, yeah, it's enough's gonna be enough. Because people anyway, with a heart. Nobody wants to see people living in encampments living like this. So there's. It's not a political thing. It's like, where's your human soul decency? So. And that's why now I've just expanded and I try to talk to as many people like yourself or whoever wants to come on the podcast. That's goal is to raise awareness to things that just are just not American.

[Guest Interviewer]

They're all my fellow Americans.

[Spencer Pratt]

That's my point.

[Guest Interviewer]

Everybody who lives here, who cares if that guy. I don't know who that guy was, right? With that pile of rubble next door to your pile of rubble here. And I don't know if he voted the same way as me, and I don't know if he had the same skin color as me. I don't give a shit. That's an American also. And he doesn't deserve to have all of his life savings burned to the ground and then be left for dead and then be tortured by the city, which is what's happening to you, by the way. The more I look into it. They're torturing you. Not only that, what is the. Some weed. They let all this burn because of some weed?

[Spencer Pratt]

Milk vetch.

[Guest Interviewer]

Milk vetch. First off, that doesn't sound like anything I want to save. I would never want to save a milk veg. I don't know what it is with that.

[Spencer Pratt]

There's no.

[Guest Interviewer]

Is that it? Is this a milk veg?

[Spencer Pratt]

If it is, we're burning it.

[Guest Interviewer]

Okay, yeah, yeah, this, whatever this is.

[Spencer Pratt]

I don't know. I don't know if it is.

[Guest Interviewer]

Whatever that is.

[Spencer Pratt]

We're going to have the plant.

[Guest Interviewer]

And now I have lead poisoning.

[Spencer Pratt]

Yeah, aluminum for sure. And that's the thing. The people that fight for plants, they're all gone. They all burn. The saddest part is those people that fight for plants. We're the animal activists because all the mountain lions died, all the coyotes died, all the hummingbirds died, all the lizards died, all the snakes died. We had bears died, all the bears died. So we're protecting something that's again, there could have been plenty of milk vetch. You could have just cleared the dead plants out. You could have made a fire break. The scariest part is.

[Guest Interviewer]

So that's true. Oh, they let all this burn because of weed.

[Spencer Pratt]

It's these plant people, the carb. So here's the thing. There's this thing in California, carb. And they're trying to help, you know, the air. But by protecting those plants, you led to more 500 EVs burn into the thing. My across the street, that guy had an entire wall of Tesla batteries burned into the sky. So what you did to the air by worrying about the plants and the dozer. So it's this backwards thingy where they protect the plants over the humans.

[Guest Interviewer]

Somebody told me, somebody told me who's high up and from California that they have a conspiracy theory about why they're not allowing people to build here. And that's because of the toxicity and they don't know how to deal with it.

[Spencer Pratt]

I wish. They don't care. Is that it? No.

[Guest Interviewer]

Okay.

[Spencer Pratt]

Yeah. I wish.

[Guest Interviewer]

Are things toxic or, you know, reality is.

[Spencer Pratt]

Here's what it comes down to. They don't care if we come back. This is my, is my hunch.

[Guest Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Spencer Pratt]

This is what I'm learning. They don't care if the actual victims come back because eventually developers were going to come in. They're going to make billions. Billions. We're talking 20 to 30 billion dollars that they would have never got in new taxes, new work. That's all going to a broke city. So if they wait out the single family housing and they let developers come in with all the friends that bankroll whoever they want in position as a power, you know, a couple more years, people. Right now, of the lots that sold, I think 40% of the lots that have sold houses are developers. Next year that's going to be 80%. It's just going to soon enough. And that's just so, so it's, it's disaster profiteering. So they're like, oh, we, we ruined our city, we ruined our state. We have no money. We are literally broke. We can lie about all our budgets, but if we just sit back, we can rebuild this entire 25, you know, 20,000 acres, whatever all this is with, you know, and they did just bring in and pass SB79. And there is people that will say that when this new bus depot goes in in the Palisades, they will be able to put nine, eight, seven to nine story buildings where single family lots were. If it's a half a mile from that major transit thing. And they will say that's not happening, but let's say it did. So now you have the entire everything up from a half mile from the ocean, eight to nine story buildings. The developers will say it's affordable housing. But I just found out from an expert Only 11% of that has to be affordable. So you got all the rest of percentage. You're charging God knows what for these ocean views and these new high rises in what used to be single family houses on a bluff in the Palisades or that was in the mobile park. There's two mobile parks across the street from Will Rogers beach that literally would have a walkway onto the sand. So you're telling me they're not waiting out all those mobile home park people to not be able to come back. So that, that can be nine story affordable housing, 11% of it. And then the rest, the most luxurious condos that somebody's going to sell for, you know, two million a pop. Two million a pop. City's taking a cut, the state's taking a cut. So, you know, I don't know that's a conspiracy. But when you just sit here all day long trying to be like, you know, because initially when it first burned down and everyone was telling me it's.

[Podcast Advertiser]

A land grab, like Maui Spencer, don't you see it?

[Spencer Pratt]

Laser guns, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, what are they talking about? What a land grab? Why would they want some of the wealthiest property to burn down? And then I find out, oh, people like my parents who got their house in the 80s, they don't pay property tax of the new house that's going to get built or the new building in 2028. That's a whole new. What my dad was paying, he could never pay in this new Los Angeles, in this new Palisade. So then you start doing the math. You go, oh, they actually don't care if everything's burned because there's so much more money to tax and to make and for friends of friends to develop. So that's why Again, in my dirt.

[Guest Interviewer]

Opinion, it's gotta be unbelievably radicalizing for you and for so many other people.

[Spencer Pratt]

That's why people keep out like, oh.

[Guest Interviewer]

Like it could have been anyone's home. You know, the fire could have gone so many different neighborhoods. Right. It could have gone all over the place.

[Spencer Pratt]

Oh, I mean, all of LA could have burned. That's like, thank. They got lucky, you know, that it didn't. You know, because. Or maybe they didn't. Maybe that's the whole point. And I keep saying, you think we can have the Olympics here when the. When the fire department is still saying they are. Their budgets are cut. There's no clearance of brush on the city lots on the state property, even after the palace is fire. You want to bring in the. The Olympics when all it would take is a terrorist and his crew to run around on little electric motorcycles throwing flares into dead brush. They could light the whole city on fire. And we know there's. They just wait till everything burns down. They can't do anything.

[Guest Interviewer]

Do you think that's what it was?

[Spencer Pratt]

No.

[Guest Interviewer]

Can we, can we go there?

[Spencer Pratt]

Like, what.

[Guest Interviewer]

What was it exactly? There's a dude who's in prison right now. Do you think it's that dude?

[Spencer Pratt]

No. That guy burned eight acres. And the second he lit the fire, he called 91112 times. So, yes, he should be in jail for burning eight acres, being an arsonist of that. Who should also be in jail with him are the state park reps who don't. Who do not let dozers, bulldozers come in and clear all the brush around a fire that was just happening because of those plants. So they let. And we have drone footage of two days after the fire, the state park, which is in their manual in Newsom State park manual. It's their job to make sure there's no dangerous condition to the community and close the state park, which they didn't. They left an entire hillside smoldering visibly. On drone footage that people were calling, people have videos. They left it smoldering for six days leading into an extreme red weather, red alert tweets, government wind event, dry weathers. They didn't put one fire truck. Newsom will brag, oh, I redeployed all. Not a single fire truck was put into the Palisades where there was a fire six days before this extreme weather event. So the only people that are responsible for 12 people burning alive, also when we say that number, do you know how many people have died since the fire of just Emotional breakdown, stress, God knows what. You know, people are dying, like, with weird pneumonias and, you know, very, like post 9, 11 Twin Towers, you know, lung stuff. So the list of people actually that are dead because of Newsom are our city leaders. LADW is way past 12, but I could talk forever. And I know you got to keep seeing California and exposing everything. I'm.

[Guest Interviewer]

I'm here all. I'm. I'm here all day.

[Spencer Pratt]

Yeah.

[Guest Interviewer]

Do you think that there should be criminal charges for the negligence here? Because as you just, as you just elucidated, this is a. This is seemingly a criminal act that could have been prevented.

[Spencer Pratt]

I flew to Washington on my own dollar, which is not a. I don't have a lot of dollars left here. Flew to Washington to meet with the Justice Department and I begged them. I said, where is the criminal negligence charges? And, you know, I, I guess it's, I don't know, the balance of like, how if it looks too political to charge the governor with criminal negligence, the.

[Guest Interviewer]

Was that what you would like?

[Spencer Pratt]

Oh, the. The Newsom should be charged with criminal negligence. The mayor should be charged with criminal negligence. Janice Quinones, ladw Criminal negligence. The state park people that have those, they have secret maps that the community that pays for them are tax dollars. They have secret maps that the fire department can look at when there's a fire, but they can't even keep of protected plants that they need to make sure the fire department doesn't touch. After the fire department on January 1st put out that eight acres from that arsonist, the state parks people, they have photos of it. This is true story. Ask the fire department to help them take dead brush and put it back on top of the fire breaks that the fire department had just cleared around where the fire. Because they like the optics. They don't want these. We're talking true insanity. That is criminal negligence. If this was a private company, these people either would be in jail. They would already have had to pay up. And then somebody like Newsom. There's 10,000 Elise fire victims that are trying to get 70% of what they want from the state because it's there. It was literally their fault that everything burned. And Newsome calls them myself. He called us opportunistic plaintiffs. That's what. That's what they called us is we.

[Guest Interviewer]

We are in being so angry.

[Spencer Pratt]

No. So that's why people are like, oh, my God, Spencer, thanks for doing. I will never stop doing what I do because of people like that who talk about people who lost everyone, everything and for some people, their family, and to call them opportunistic plaintiffs for literally calling for suing you for what you as a government entity are responsible for. So it's, I mean, the level of like sick is. It's scary and, you know, so can I go personal?

[Guest Interviewer]

Because everything changed for me when I became a father, man. And this hits so hard. This is like so real because I think about my own house and I think about my memories and my children and every father.

[Podcast Advertiser]

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[Spencer Pratt]

Tread [e-mail] for the first time ever.

[Podcast Advertiser]

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[Guest Interviewer]

Like, see it. How much is like being a father.

[Spencer Pratt]

Changed you do you know what it's like? You don't. But for anybody to have your 3 year old son ask, if not on a daily basis, every other day, when are we going home? Oh, man. And then to have your 8 year old try to be funny and like, be like, our home burned down. We're never going back. And he's like, he's trying to like, he, that's also trauma and emotion that he's processing that, you know, he's trying to communicate with his little brother. And it's like, then they're like biting. And then to the point the three year old will ask like people like, is your house? I mean, it's past what people can comprehend, but it's even worse. Like for my mom, my mom has now fallen three times since her house burned down and broken her arm.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Three.

[Spencer Pratt]

Each arm. And now the same one a third time. She's broken her arm three times because she's now in a new place in a, in a condo with a steep staircase and trying to function with her emotion. Like, so, yeah, there's the children, but then there's the 70 plus the 80. There's a, a 96 year old lady that was a Holocaust survivor that was at our congressional investigation, demanding, saying she literally survived the Holocaust. And she was like, what has happened here? Like the video. Anybody should just go watch this woman talk about what she's gone through in the last year, comparing it to nothing she's experienced in her life, just how she's been treating what she went through and how just unacceptable everything is. So it's not just like the kids or me. It's, you know, it's. So yes, it's. Again, I, I have to get less pumped all day long, you know, like, that's my goal is like, because it's you don't you get madder. I just saw a fire victim like a day ago and she said to me, you know, I'd just been sad for the last year and I woke up with so much hate in my heart and so much anger. And I said ironically, and she probably didn't think it was funny, but I was like, huh? I just saw a fire victim last night that said she talked to a therapist or read a book that it takes one year to truly process an extreme traumatic event. I was like, it was one year last week, so clearly you're on the right path. But she was looking at me like, oh my God. I was like, welcome to being hating your heart for a while, lady.

[Guest Interviewer]

So what's your, what's your message to young kids? Because you're like, you're exactly. You nailed it, man. When you're like, young kids are over this shit, like they're done with watching their society crumble, which. With watching their houses burn down and you're taking a stand, like, instead of just taking it, like the Hollywood actors who, like you mentioned goes and buys something else, you're taking a stand. You're saying, this is my dirt, I'll defend it. And that's really inspiring to a lot of people. Most people just get kicked and then they just stay down and they keep getting kicked and you're not doing that. And that's really remarkable. Like, in fact, you're entering the battle even more so and scaring a lot of powerful people by doing so.

[Spencer Pratt]

Well, the key I try to do, and I would recommend it to adults, younger people, anybody, is to just stay driven in facts. Like, I never use party words. I don't think I've ever said either party in a sentence because I don't. That's not for me. I focus on facts and numbers and statistics and really try to get the truth and build off of that. And that helps me cut through all of it. Because people get so caught up in being on a team or, or this. And I'm not saying anybody's wrong or right, but what I stay in, in my messaging is just like, oh, this burned because of this. They didn't have this water. You know, just the, just that anybody with a brain goes, oh, my God. And so if you want to have any movement with anything you want people to have, you have to be in facts and true facts, not facts from the people you want the facts, like the actual facts. And all. Everything I've ever posted is facts. They can try to be, oh, he's a conspiracy, spreads disinformation. I, I will die on everything that I posted because it is 100% true.

[Guest Interviewer]

How do you save L. A? Not just the homeless thing, but like, how do you save L. A? Because I think that everybody has become kind of a meme, right? California has become a meme. I don't live here, but the whole rest of the country kind of looks at California, looks at the problems, and they're like, whoa, man. Like, this is a state that was gifted. It's the most gifted state geographically, most gifted. Natural resources has so much. I call it the crown jewel of America. And yet you can see it in all the numbers, number one and all the things you don't want to be number one in. Job losses, poverty, taxes, crime, and people outflowing the state, you know, people leaving. So how do you fix something like that, specifically LA Well, I go back.

[Spencer Pratt]

To what I know and what I experience with the fire aid scam, and that's just 100 million. And I know how much 100 million could have actually helped fire victims. So it starts with all the money that's getting scammed and going to things that people wanted it to go to on the whether, no matter what party you are, it had a purpose. 24 billion.

[Guest Interviewer]

24 billion for homelessness. That's 170,000 per homeless person.

[Spencer Pratt]

No. And again there, that's the price of a house.

[Guest Interviewer]

Where I come from, people will argue.

[Spencer Pratt]

Go look at the audit and go look at this. I don't need to because I can go look. That 24 billion makes a big difference in anything you do. So if you're increasing something, whatever that audit and whatever that list it was, clearly, even if it wasn't stolen or scammed, you spend it on the wrong things. So it's like you go buy a. You go buy a car and you Spend a bunch of money and it's a terrible car. Yeah, you still bought that car, but it was a terrible car. So whatever those investments were, they were terrible. So that is the bottom line. Like it's as simple as making sure the money for all these things that everybody wanted to go to these things to help goes to it and then past that. That's a big change because in my mind, if you gave me $24 billion, I know what I could do. If I was being honest and genuine and it was going to people not making salaries and it wasn't. You could do a lot with that type of money. I could have done so much with 100 million in the Palisades, in Altadena, easily by working with the community, talking to the actual victims. Who's stuck here? What small business? Like right after the fire, I had a brand that didn't want to be politicized, but they gave me $50,000 to go give out $10,000 checks. And I never posted it because, you know, I didn't want those people to feel any type of way. But I knew because I handed those checks or whatever where it's such as a cash one, like a cashier's check to the, you know, to these very small businesses at just that $10,000, you would have thought like, I came down from heaven. So if $10,000 to these small business fire victims created that like hope and energy and whatever, what can you break up 100 million to? You know, so let's expand that to the 24 billion or, you know, I don't even know the numbers. And that's how they will try to come at you because I, I don't have them factual, but the numbers are so big that it's enough that we can save la, we can save California. People who are taxed want their money to go to the things that they want fixed.

[Guest Interviewer]

Yes.

[Spencer Pratt]

People don't want to see encampments, they don't want to see people on drugs, both sides, whatever political party, any human beings don't want to see dogs getting tortured, killed, mutilated. These are just like, these are the things I focus on that are just common sense, basic humanity things. And I think it starts with the money.

[Guest Interviewer]

Listen, I think the most inspiring thing about your story and what you're doing here is that people aren't used to seeing celebrities do things for good. They're used to seeing celebrities like build well in Africa, that's fine. But like, they forget their own communities and they forget their country. And celebrities don't work on behalf of their nation and they don't work on behalf of America and they almost feel ashamed of it. And like you're holding down for your community. It's neat to see a celebrity actually do that. That's what's inspiring about it is we become so black pilled and jaded that like our celebrities just kind of hate us actually. And I think that's led to a collapse of Hollywood. Right. And I think that's pretty self evident and I think that's led to a lot of out of touch celebrities that have done it to themselves. There are no victims here, but I think that's really neat for people. I think that people are like, wow, like that guy's really cooled down.

[Spencer Pratt]

I would say we still have no celebrities because as Gavin Newsom called me, I'm a C list reality star. So you know, so you know, let's be clear on my, you know, I don't want to gas myself up. I don't think we probably called Trump.

[Guest Interviewer]

The same thing, but he called Trump the same thing.

[Spencer Pratt]

You know, I've reached out to a lot of actual as how the Internet would call real celebrities whose houses burned down ghosts. And I make very clear I don't need anything political out of you. No, just come, you know, show what this is like. You know, that's right. I'm happy you're here and I would, I don't know the, the opposite of you, what they're who that is. I'm happy if they sit here. Anybody that comes and shows, that's it, that's the, that's the statement. It's been over a year. 7,000 homes burned to the ground and maybe there's 3, 400 houses in the works and that's it, you know, those are the people that have the money that like can do it. It's not like there's not more because you know, there's, that's the reason nobody else can do it.

[Guest Interviewer]

The celebrities told you no, they just ignore me. A list celebrities won't even get back with you.

[Spencer Pratt]

Oh, of course, ones that it's house burned down to help that will go on a news thing and kind of like, yes, I lost my house. Oh, and the movie comes out this Friday, you know, like so, you know.

[Guest Interviewer]

I don't see Avatar 9.

[Spencer Pratt]

I don't name them because like my wife talked me down from that because she's like, you know, I also have never been a celebrity that risk sabotaging potential million dollar projects. So I can't be in their shoes and judge them. And now I also don't judge firefighters who don't come forward with the truth because they risk retaliation or state part. There's a lot of people that want in their hearts, they want the truth to come out, but they're scared of retaliation, whether they're a firefighter, whether they're a list Hollywood actor and saying the wrong thing. Just today, I lost two serious projects, one ad deal and one television show thing that was happening just based off of, oh, we can't do political. We don't want to look, I'm like, I'm not doing political. I'm trying to save my community, my city. There's nothing I've said that is controversial like this is. But today, so I see the other side. Why I don't name all the people that were part of fire aid that went there and went on the stage and performed and have never said, hey, I've heard that none of that money went to the victims. Like, you know, and they never, you know, it is what it is. So you're welcome to all you celebrities that my wife is. Has more connected with Jesus than I am.

[Guest Interviewer]

So, yes, you want to end on that.

[Spencer Pratt]

You want to.

[Guest Interviewer]

Like what? Like, does that brought you closer to your faith? Like, you know, shout out Jesus like, you know, this brought you closer.

[Spencer Pratt]

Thankfully, I've been married to a preacher for almost 20 years. Shout out Pratt prayers. So I've always been like, you know, even though I'm the crystal guy and people are like, oh, he's a. He's a wizard. He's like, as you know, you can't work. I don't. Because I don't worship stones. You know, I love beautiful things from the earth that God created. But there's always been this thing that, you know, you know, I'm with the, the dark forces because I was into crystals. First off, all my crystals burn. So, you know, don't worry, guys. I clearly know they're not too magical, but some people say they exploded and made more superpowers for me, you know, so you could look at it both ways. All right, the thing that I see.

[Guest Interviewer]

The evidence of that thing that I.

[Spencer Pratt]

Can keep going back to because I, you know, I talk to now God so much, and I'm like, ye, why would you do this? And if God were ever to burn somebody's house down that if he really wanted real change happen, he burned my house down. If you really wanted me to mad you burn my mom's house down and have to talk have me Talking to my crying mom every single day for a year. So that's where I always go back. If God really wanted, like. And then I think, okay, what if I start saving lives by making changes in la? You know, now I'm already got the whole plan. What if I save all these dogs? You know? Yes. Now maybe God didn't want all these dogs getting mutilated. So I start going to like, the bigger picture of like, you know, I got merked for more, you know, so it's still hard. I'm so like, oh, I don't think I needed this.

[Guest Interviewer]

But, but bro, that's how God works. Like the entire Old Testament, the New Testament, like, bad things happen to people and God pulls them through to righteousness to like God's plan on the other side. And everyone goes through tough things. Christ all the way on down goes through these, the, the, the crucifixion. And then they come out on the other side and they are so much more powerful and they're so much more redeemed and they're so much more blessed. It always happens that way. It's always the same. It's the story of God.

[Spencer Pratt]

Well, you know, I also, in my head I always hear, now it's like 17 years ago, I wanted to make a documentary about the Marine recon guy. So I went to Camp Pendleton, I funded it myself. And, and I'll never forget the speech that the, you know, this colonel, this Marine Corps colonel said, and he was like, if you want to testify, you need to be tested. And so I am like, oh, okay, God. He was testing me. I'm feeling time to testify. So I go back to that moment because I was like, woo. You know, that was heavy. And it stuck with me for all these years. So I, I feel very tested. And now it's time to testify.

[Guest Interviewer]

You feel God moving in your life. You feel like the power of God.

[Spencer Pratt]

Big things are coming.

[Guest Interviewer]

Yes.

[Spencer Pratt]

So thank you. I could see it for coming out. And I hope you bring as much attention to everything that everyone wants changed. In LA and Cal, people will argue and come at you and be like, this is a you thing. It's like, no, it's not. I go around all day long, I'm out in these streets and people come up to me all day long and they go, thank you. And it's not in one area. Everybody wants these things I talk about because it's so basic.

[Guest Interviewer]

So, yes. Boom, boom.

[Spencer Pratt]

Thank you.

[Guest Interviewer]

Praise God. So cool. That's so awesome.

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[Guest Interviewer]

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