One Year After the Fires: Spencer For Mayor, What's Changed, and What’s at Stake Now with UFLAC President Freddy Escobar

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Fame Game with Heidi & Spencer

Episode: One Year After the Fires: Spencer For Mayor, What's Changed, and What’s at Stake Now with UFLAC President Freddy Escobar

Date: January 8, 2026
Hosts: Spencer Pratt, Heidi Montag (in absentia, wrangling kids) & Studio71
Guest: Freddy Escobar, President of UFLAC (United Firefighters of Los Angeles City)

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Episode Overview

This anniversary episode marks one year since the devastating Lockman (Palisades) Fire. Spencer Pratt, now a mayoral candidate and fire survivor, and special guest Freddy Escobar—a 36-year LAFD firefighter, marine veteran, and President of UFLAC—take a raw, unsparing look at the failures, political cover-ups, and what needs to change in Los Angeles. The conversation focuses on firefighting resources, homelessness, political leadership (particularly Mayor Karen Bass), funding issues, and the path forward for both fire policy and city accountability.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Emotional Impact and Failures Post-Fire

• Immediate Reaction: Escobar expresses grief, anger, and shame over both the devastation and the lack of rebuilding a year later, emphasizing the emotional toll on families.
  “I am lost for words on what you're personally going through and what everybody who's affected by this, it's just, it's wrong." (02:24, Escobar)
• Empathy Void: Spencer notes that Escobar was the only public official visibly grieving and caring in media, which built trust.
  “…you were crying and you were like the only person…that was truly feeling what was happening and not just like, you know, a talking head…That video made me just trust your heart.” (03:18, Spencer)

2. Political Leadership & Systemic Issues

• Karen Bass' Leadership Critiqued:
  • Bass is accused of being disengaged during the initial crisis, prioritizing international travel and downplaying imminent disaster.
    “She wanted to go to Africa because obviously going to Africa is more fun than…doing your job…” (07:40, Spencer)
• Chief Crowley Firing: Fire Chief Crowley was ousted after calling out underfunding and warning about structural risks—pointing to a culture hostile to whistleblowing.
  “She called out Mayor Bass and she got fired…That alone…If that's a reason. I think we have an issue with Mayor Bass not knowing winds are coming.” (05:34, Escobar)

3. Fire Department Underfunding & Staffing Crisis

• Systemic Neglect:
  • LAFD is still recovering from hiring freezes under Mayor Villaraigosa (no hires for 5 years; department now has fewer firefighters and stations than in 1960). (15:28, Escobar)
  • Current department is “less than 1960” staffing; should be double the size.
• Budget Cuts and Pay Paradoxes:
  • Lower-level firefighters are denied overtime or vacation due to budget squeezes, while chiefs rack up large paychecks by working extra shifts (with high divorce/mental health tolls).
    “…the boots on the ground, they're exhausted from working...but there's not enough staffing. And, again, goes back to Villaraigosa.” (18:45, Escobar)

4. Homelessness, Drugs, and Public Safety

• Homelessness Is Lucrative for NGOs:
  • Billions “supposed to” fund housing are instead propping up nonprofit salaries, with little improvement visible on the streets.
    “It's going into the pockets of the NGO, you know, organizations to the salaries these people. And they don't want that to stop.” (10:35, Spencer)
• Increasing Crime and Danger:
  • Firefighters report rampant open drug use, crime, and encampments in their station districts (e.g., Boyle Heights, MacArthur Park, Skid Row).
    "I worked at Fire Station 11...in the middle of MacArthur Park...My cousins can't even go to the 711 because it's too dangerous." (11:39, Escobar)
• 2026 World Cup & Olympics Concerns:
  • Escobar bluntly says LA is unprepared for these major events due to chronic underfunding of police, fire, and general services.
    “If I was a betting man, I’d vote no. We’re not properly funded…the money is misused at the local level.” (12:43, Escobar)

5. The DEI Debate & Experience Drain

• Senior Talent Loss:
  • A wave of experienced firefighters (“gray beards”) recently retired, leading to a dangerous loss of institutional knowledge.
• Affirmative Action & DEI Critique:
  • Escobar is critical of DEI initiatives as implemented, saying they undermine the value of minority and female firefighters who earned their place, and that best-fit hiring is needed.
    “You're taking away the credit of...people that have proven themselves...” (24:00, Escobar)

6. The Lockman Fire: Lessons Unlearned

• Lack of Wildfire Experience:
  • Some LAFD responders had never fought a wildfire in a state park; structural fire expertise isn’t enough.
• After Action Reports Tampered:
  • A reputable chief’s honest report was altered and his name redacted to shield higher-ups from accountability.
    “He asked his signature to be redacted. So there's an issue there because the leaders don't want to know the truth.” (28:14, Escobar)
• Political, Not Legal, Cover-Up:
  • LAFD enjoys legal immunity, so secrecy or denials are PR/politically motivated to protect reelection prospects, not out of fear of lawsuits. (31:12, Spencer)
• Fear of Retaliation:
  • Officials and even boots-on-the-ground firefighters fear telling the truth due to career reprisals—exemplified by Chief Crowley's firing.
    “The biggest takeaway is that this command structure is set up where the truth can't be told, even when they were there, because [they fear] retaliation.” (37:35, Spencer)

7. Environmental Policies & State Park Mismanagement

• Obstruction by State Parks:
  • Fire crews were hampered by environmentalist restrictions on using dozers or even seeing “secret” maps of protected areas—despite imminent risk to homes.
• Dead Brush Returned after Fire:
  • After firebreaks were cut, State Parks replaced dead brush over them—contradicting their own safety manuals.
    “So no. This is a day after the fire. It's still smoldering and they're adding brush back on.” (65:24, Spencer)

8. City Funding Measures & Tax Proposal

• Proposed Half-Cent Sales Tax:
  • UFLAC and LAFD are pushing a November ballot measure for a dedicated half-cent sales tax explicitly locked to fire department funding, buildings, equipment, and staffing—insulated from political siphoning. (35:56 – 36:00, Escobar)

9. Political Landscape and Mayoral Candidacy

• Spencer’s Mayoral Campaign Launch:
  • Spencer Pratt declares his run for mayor, citing Bass’s lack of accountability and the need for transparent leadership. “At the one year anniversary of the Palisades fire, I will be announcing that I am running to replace Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles... My goal is to call her out and get her out of office and let her retire and she can become a podcaster.” (57:34, Spencer)
• Union Endorsements:
  • Escobar outlines the often “rigged” nature of union and political endorsements but insists UFLAC interviews all candidates openly.
• Call for Moderation:
  • Both advocate for a return to centrist, common-sense leadership focused on results, not “jersey politics.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• (02:24, Escobar):
  "I've never been at war. But speaking to your staff, this is what it looks like. And it's shameful that there's not enough building going on.... I'm lost for words on what you're personally going through and what everybody who's affected by this, it's just, it's wrong."

• (39:01, Escobar): "They shut me up. The problem that they didn't realize is don't piss off a Marine. I'm going to come out, I'm going to be vindicated."

• (54:29, Escobar):
  “It's difficult. It's money, right? It's money that you, you go in there. So the unions endorsed. They got LA County Federation...they use money to push their candidates through.”

• (65:24, Spencer):
  "This is a day after the fire. It's still smoldering and they're adding brush back on [to the firebreaks]."

• (57:34, Spencer):
  “At the one year anniversary of the Palisades fire, I will be announcing that I am running to replace Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles…”

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Important Timestamps & Segments

• [02:24] - Emotional toll of the fires; leadership failures
• [05:34] - Systemic underfunding and political scapegoating (Crowley firing)
• [12:43] - Olympic & World Cup readiness; city services under strain
• [18:45] - Firefighter pay, overtime, staffing crisis
• [23:46] - DEI controversies and knowledge drain
• [28:14] - After action report cover-up, tampered findings
• [35:56] - Dedicated tax proposal for LAFD
• [37:35] - Culture of retaliation and fear in LAFD
• [54:29] - How union/political endorsements work and why it’s “rigged”
• [57:34] - Spencer’s announcement: running for mayor
• [65:24] - State Parks adding brush over firebreaks post-fire

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Tone & Style

The episode is confrontational, impassioned, and deeply personal. Spencer is unscripted, direct, and often angry; Escobar is blunt and brings frontline authority. Both use humor and raw honesty, with occasional expletives ("No shit", "Bullshit", "Don't piss off a Marine", etc.). They repeatedly stress a need for “truth,” “common sense,” and direct, unvarnished talk about leadership failures, policy misdirections, and the toxic role of machine politics.

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Final Takeaway

This episode is a call to arms for Angelenos facing the intersections of disaster recovery, political inertia, and public safety breakdown. Spencer’s mayoral run aims to break through what both see as a corrupt, unaccountable system. Escobar’s on-the-ground insights reinforce the urgency for real reform—a better funded fire department, a sane approach to homelessness and drugs, and leadership driven by service, not next-step career ambitions.

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For those who couldn’t listen:
This is essential, cathartic listening for anyone who cares about LA’s future, accountability in local government, or the real state of disaster response in a city staring down both literal and political fires.

Transcript

[Narrator]

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[Bob the Drag Queen]

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[Freddie Escobar]

Oh no.

[Peloton Ad Speaker]

That's all guys.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Welcome back to the Fame Game. My beautiful global pop star wife is dealing with our lovely children who are still on holiday break. As an adult parent, I now do not appreciate three and a half weeks of Christmas break. I think once we see Santa, it's all. Let's get back to class, kids. It's a very exciting episode. Today we have a LA legend who has been so helpful in helping me get the truth of any way he can. For the Palisade's fire victims, this is Freddie Escobar. Did I get your name?

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah, you got it right.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

I saw your name right.

[Freddie Escobar]

Well, there's a few. I'm not a legend. Not a legend in my group, in my tax, you know, I'm a 36 year firefighter for the city of Los Angeles and prior to that I was in the United States Marine Corps. I've been government issued my entire life and I just want, I want to start off by saying, you know, I've been up here after the fires, I was here during the fires and it's emotional and I'd be remiss if what you are personally going through and all the residents, not only in Pacific Palisades, But El Tedena, 12 lives were lost. I've never been at war. But speaking to your staff, this is what it looks like. And it's shameful that there's not enough building going on. It's shameful all the hurdles that are going through. And I am lost for words on what you're personally going through and what everybody who's affected by this, it's just, it's wrong.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

You know, the only video I've seen of anybody that looked like they cared was, was. I don't know where I saw, but it was you. I want to say, January 7th or January 8th, and you were crying and you were like the only person in like a, you know, in a technically a power position, somebody part of the government that I watched in a clip that was truly feeling what was happening and not just like, you know, with respect, like a talking head just going through the motions and, And I feel like that video made me just trust your heart all along this journey, when I'm calling you and texting you that you're. You don't have an agenda because I saw that video you, that day, just feeling the pain of knowing what was. Was coming. So I, I do appreciate your heart because I, I, you know, I don't believe most of the people I interact with. I just feel like everyone. And I do believe you. That's why I'm thankful to have you here to try to just try to figure out a, you know, go backwards, obviously, and how we got to here and then try to leave this podcast or this talk with some solutions and plans. Because you know what's really now, when this airs, it'll be officially be one year since the. We can call it the Lockman fire, some people call it the Palisades fire. But it'll be one year when this airs on January 8th. So the fact that truly nothing has happened, there's no plans, there's just, you know, talking heads using that Palisades as little hits for social media or tweets. Like, I'm so mad. You know, like, before I was sad and now I'm just mad. So we'll get to that. But let's. Let's rewind since. Since I've become connected with you, I've deep dove you've been fighting the city, I want to say, for years and almost, almost saying this was going to happen. I don't want to say you said like the palaces are, but there's Videos of you in front of fire commissions that I've watched where you are saying, if you keep cutting our funding, you know.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah, no, and it's. It's emotional. And, you know, when you come towards the end of your career, you want to leave things better, and they're not better right now. I did say in December was a year that somebody's going to perish, could be one of us or could be the residents of Los Angeles if we don't have a properly funded fire department. And I look at this devastation, I look what they did to then Fire Chief Crowley, what Mayor Bass has done. And it's disgusting to me as an immigrant, as a child growing up in Los Angeles and seeing what's happening to Los Angeles and now being part of making changes. The false promises to the first responders, the false promises to the residents of Los Angeles. If you don't come out here, walk around and see what these families are going through, and you didn't lose anybody. And I mean, by loss, you didn't have any life loss personally, but there's families out here that had life loss. There's nothing you can say or do other than what can we do to help you move forward? And I believe Mayor Bass has the power. City council has the power. And walking through here, there's nothing. It's slow. It's molassesly slow. And it's wrong. It's wrong. It's just like it's wrong what they're doing to the LAFD on funding the fire department. It's wrong. Chief Crowley got fired for telling the truth. She called out Mayor Bass and she got fired. Mayor Bass said the winds weren't coming. Let's really think about that. It was projected. It was on national tv. It was all over. Everybody was talking about these most unprecedented wins, and she didn't know about it. She got upset because the fire chief didn't tell her about the winds. That alone, if is. If that's a reason. I think we have an issue with Mayor Bass not knowing winds are coming.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Well, she obviously knew because her office was tweeting about it. And, you know, there was warnings. It was a. Yeah, that. That's the bottom line. That's the issue. First off, because as the mayor, if there's a extreme weather event, like right now, she's all over the news talking about rain and this. Because now she knows, oh, they'll call me. You know, like, you should have known that was your. Your job going in. And she did know, but she wanted to go To Africa because obviously going to Africa is more fun than hanging out, checking the wind reports and doing your job and you know, setting up an, an A talks for an embassy. You know, that's what ambassadors are for. Also like this because they'll argue and be like, oh, she wanted to, you know, get the agana embassy. Now it's like, I'm pretty sure that's what literally ambassadors do. They do. It sounds like we don't need our mayor going to Africa when LA looks like worse than a third world country. Why you don't need to go to another country to check that out.

[Freddie Escobar]

Well, yeah, and I, and I could tell you she called me from the military plane. She was on that, that night I got home late night one of the of January 7th, so January 8th, I got home around 3:30 or 4 in the morning. She called between 4:30 and 5 in the morning and asked what's going on? And I was very candid with her. I said it's not good. The men and women of the lafd, the residents of Los Angeles, you have lost an entire city. It's bad. We don't know what the outcome's going to be. So for me, I'm like, and I believe they're all over the news right now, today, the rains and everything, because she's going to run. She's rerunning for mayor. This is, you know, this is a playbook out of their careers of wanting what is in the next step for me and securing what is happening and what's happening in Los Angeles. My goal is to educate whoever's listening, but also educate the residents of Los Angeles. We need a change. We need a change. This far left social experiment needs to end and that's what's happening not only with the mayor, but with certain council members. We're fortunate you're here, you're in CD11. And what I mean by fortunate, your representative, your counsel person, she is a champion for the residents of CD 11 for Pacific Palisades and she is what right looks like and we talk about politics. She has a socialist running against her and there's already people jumping on that bandwagon to support her opponent because Tracy park is too moderate for Los Angeles. That's what they're fearful of. It's crazy. It's ludicrous.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Yeah, I just, I don't understand what people want LA to turn into. You know, like that's, that's what just keeps confusing me. You know, if you drive around, I mean, again, I grew up here and it Wasn't like this. There weren't people smoking fentanyl on the sides of every corner. There weren't encampments. And then, you know, you know, if you get in the comments section anything, people would be like, don't you have like heart when you. Don't you care about these? It's like. But they miss the fact that there's billions and billions of dollars that was supposed to find housing for these people that is obviously designed not to find housing for these people. And clearly they want people on the streets to continue doing because why? Why else? Where's the money going? It's going into the pockets of the ngo, you know, organizations to the salaries these people. And they don't want that to stop. Why would they want to stop? Their lucrative. It's lucrative.

[Freddie Escobar]

No, it's very lucrative business. It's being unveiled. The truth is coming out. I currently work at Fire Station 2 in Boyle Heights. My family lives in the Pico Union district. I worked at Fire Station 11 right there on 7th street in the middle of MacArthur Park. That's CD1. Eunice Hernandez has been. She's been good to the fire department, but her politics are far left. She's a socialist. Go look at MacArthur Park. It's terrible. My cousins can't even go to the 711 because it's too dangerous. The position that the experiment is taking with this homelessness is we all have a big heart. We do. You do as well. They passed a measure to specifically dedicate money to homelessness. The mayor has decided to put in this last budget $300 million of the general fund into homelessness. Now, where I work in Boyle Heights, where I work in the MacArthur park area, there's a lot of homelessness there. Those numbers haven't changed. There's new mid rises, they're coming in. They're called transitional housing. This is an epidemic of drugs, which becomes a mental issue. And the people that truly, the wives or the mothers that have children that truly need help, they get the help. They get the transition into the population, they get help with their kids, the schooling, anything to get them a job and off the streets, which is amazing. But the majority of this is drug infested is because they encourage them. They're passing out drug needles, they're passing out pipes, they're saying, hey, it's okay to do drugs. And there's no enforcement of it in the streets. And it's going to continue. It's going to get worse. Are we ready for 2026 this year for the World Cup? I wear a badge, and I'm saying no. Are we weary? Are we ready for the Olympics? Hopefully we will, but if I was a betting man, I'd vote no. We're not properly funded. The fire department, lapd, General services. The money is misused at the local level, and it needs to change, period.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So just last week, I was sent a letter that went out to all the lafd. Can you explain? This letter was from the new chief more, saying that everybody that had just done overtime during the holidays, they. They now are not eligible to take any.

[Narrator]

For the first time ever, there's been a truly beautiful medical breakthrough. One shot makes you hot. But with terrifying consequences. In the new original series, FX is the Beauty. The glamorous world of supermodels turns deadly as mysterious deaths draw in f FBI agents and a shadowy billionaire who will stop at nothing to protect his empire from executive producer Ryan Murphy. FX is the Beauty premieres January 21st on FX. Hulu and Hulu on Disney for bundle subscribers.

[Bob the Drag Queen]

Hey, everybody. My name is Bob the Drag Queen.

[Monet X Change]

And I'm Monet X Change, and we.

[Bob the Drag Queen]

Are the host of Sibling Rivalry. This is the podcast where two best friends gab, talk smack, and have a lot of fun with our black queer selves.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah, for sure.

[Monet X Change]

And, you know, we are family, so we talk about everything, honey, from why we don't like hugs to black Lives matter to interracial dating, to other things. Right, Bob?

[Freddie Escobar]

Yes.

[Bob the Drag Queen]

And it gets messy, and we are not afraid to be wrong. So please join us over here at silverbribbery, available anywhere you get your podcast. You can listen and subscribe for free.

[Freddie Escobar]

For free, honey. Paid leave that. That. That is correct. So now this. This goes back to Viragosa days.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Okay?

[Freddie Escobar]

So you can't. You can't forget that Mayor Viragosa decimated the fire department, did not allow us to hire for five years. So we had no. No hiring mechanism at all for five years. So you fast forward to 2026. We're still catching up from the decision Mayor Viragosa made with his council. So we didn't hire for five years. Now our staffing is exactly the same. It's actually less than 1960. I came on in 1989. We have six less stations. We have fewer firefighters. LAFD should be double the size. And we don't have the financial mechanism through the city council to do this to prevent or assist to making a better outcome. What occurred at Pacific Palisades.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So when Mayor Bass gets elected, the chief at the time was Crowley or.

[Freddie Escobar]

No the chief was Chief Crowley. Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

And she tells Karen Bass we are.

[Freddie Escobar]

So they try to have her do an exercise to cut the fire department before Pacific Palisades. And Chief Crowley said, no, we can't cut the fire department. So they cut our mechanics. We have reserve rigs that were at the shops, not repaired, so that all backs up. So Chief Crowley and her command staff had to make decisions on financial decisions to protect the residents of Los Angeles. I, as the representative of the membership, as the president, I am just. Excuse my language, shit. Full of counting on city council to provide a service to the residents of Los Angeles. My family, your family, but also to protect the firefighters. We don't have enough staffing on what we do every single day. So Chief Crowley made a decision to staff the Fire department when they. Before the January 7 incident, she chose not to recall the offgoing members because of a financial decision, because they're telling her to cut. No one is going to tell you that from City council, but that's what happened. And then when they did recall, we didn't have enough apparatuses because they're not fixed, or we don't have enough apparatuses to staff to prevent an incident like Pacific Palisades, where we're at today.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So is it the way. It's the system, like, for pay? Because like I keep now seeing, you know, salaries of these chiefs and these battalion commands, some of these people, I could be wrong on this, but, like 700,000.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So how is it the top, top guys, there's enough money for them, but then the guys that are. They say behind the hose, the lower end of the chain, they're having to not have their vacation paid leave because they worked overtime, and there's not enough money for them. But there is for the.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah, well, at the chiefs, at the structure, at the battalion chief, assistant chief, and the ones that are making that money, they're. They're choosing to work their work. They're away from home. You're making that money, you're at higher salaries, but you're never. You're never at home. And one of the challenges we have is, you know, not only our lifehood after we retire, but also divorce rate is one of the top worst to be at. So there's some sacrifices there to be, to be fair. Now, why they're getting that is because they're choosing to work, and they're going to work. Now, the boots on the ground, they're exhausted from working. They're working already 10, 12 extra days. Some of them. Some are working four to six days, but there's not enough staffing. Again, goes back to Viragosa. But also the mayor has not allowed us to have enough academy classes. We need more academy classes. We need to be double the size in the city of Los Angeles to truly have a fire department to represent the residents of Los Angeles. The salaries are going to come just from overtime. You're working now that the fire chief has cut our CTO time, which we call compensated time off, you have to plan ahead. He's only letting 10% of the workforce. When I talk about the workforce, those are your battalion chiefs in the field. Your captain twos, your captain ones, your engineers, your AOS and your firefighters. Firefighter medics. The firefighters and the firefighter medics are the ones that are doing the most recalls, the most assigned hire, because that's where the vacancies exist. That's what is occurring. And we need more. But it's not only LA city issue, it's an issue across the state of California because we have a lot of people that are leaving the fire service to go outside the state because of the call loads as well. We're going a lot of homeless calls, a lot of fires caused by homelessness as well.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Yeah, I was just reading that in the last, like two weeks, there was two different fires in la. Again, you know, right in the headline for home, you know, but there on the sides of the street and, you know, we see these photos, they look like encampments, and then on the side of the highways and these, you know, encampments that are starting in the brush. So I've heard it's like 80% of the calls right now.

[Freddie Escobar]

Is it. It's high up there. I would be guessing on a percentage, but I think all of us that are listening to this podcast, if you guys remember the 10 freeway, the incident on the 10 freeway where the pallets got a fire and then they shut down the 10 freeway for a few days. I was working that night at Fire Station 11 in MacArthur Park. And where we pulled up, we were in the initial assignment. We pulled up, we see homelessness, people coming out. This homeless lady said, hey, my dog's in there. And, you know, you got. You got a big heart for all that. When we go back to and listen to the audio and the radio, listen to fire commission, listen to city council, and for them to say it wasn't started by homelessness, we saw it, we saw the initial. So they don't want that narrative out there. And I mean, they. Mayor Bass, some of the council members do not want to say, hey, this is caused by homelessness because we didn't see it in a camera. I guarantee you they got pictures of them, they got videos of them starting. But what they're saying is, hey, Spencer, I didn't see them light the match, put it to the piece of paper or whatever they're doing. I don't have that video. I just have a video of the homelessness jumping out of where the fire started. Put two plus two together is going to equal four. And that's what's occurring. They're trying to fool us all. And I don't understand the residents of Los Angeles should be outraged. That's my goal, is get them outraged. We have elections coming up and we need to change our elected positions to be a better representative of what we want Los Angeles to be, but also California.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So speaking of representatives. So a lot of people I see all over X, what part of the fire department was hurt by this dei? And there are a lot of people that tell me it wasn't necessarily DEI that has hurt the fire department. But so many of the top OG firefighters just retired at one time. I don't know, somebody told me like 50 of these top yes guys just all this was their time was up and then the opening of these people that have all this knowledge and history. I know in the military they would call them like gray beards. You know, the people that had all the experience were just were left out. But how much of you know, because there was the viral video that people. I've shared it as well. The one clip where when Crowley was around, they have the video and that lady's like, you know, well, if you fell, how did you get your plate self into that position? You should ask yourself, why I should be able to carry you out. How much of that was just a media clip, you know, like a social team versus across the board?

[Freddie Escobar]

I mean, it was happening. Let's. Let's not. It was happening. Now you go back to DEI. As I mentioned, I was hired in 1989. When I went through there, they said, hey, we're giving you extra points for being brown and beautiful. I was younger, so I was a little bit more beautiful, but also for military. And they said, hey, they're doing something called affirmative action. I said, shit, say you want to give me 10 points for that? What? Whatever next. I've never had. I've never looked at the skin color. I was brought up in a household. You do your job, you know, your job. They're going to have to pick the best person for the job. That's always been my motivation. Now, DEI has come in and came in during Chief Crowley, during Mayor Bass, during this big push, and I was against it. I said, you discredit a lot of the Latinos, a lot of the African Americans, the Asians, the females that are able to do the job. We don't need dei. We are a very good representative of the community we serve. But you're taking away the credit of. I use myself, so I don't use anybody else. Of people that have proven themselves, their abilities, their education, and their assets to the organization away. So the DEI was a big movement. Chief Crowley was the first female, plus being the first lesbian. They paraded her until they fired her. Right. So is it an issue? Yeah, absolutely. It was an issue. Am I glad it's going away? Yes, I'm glad it's going away. We should hire, and we should be a reflection of the community we serve. There's plenty of phenomenal people of all colors, all race, and you have an opening, shoot it out, and the best person gets picked. That's what I call di. But, yes, to answer your question, it was an issue. And, you know, it's very unfortunate because it brought a bad light to the lafd.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Speaking of bad light and the lafd, a sensitive subject, the initial Lockman fire. You know, I have now spent almost a year just asking as many questions, and, you know, there's so many things that obviously went wrong to create that. And I then bring it back to when we have this conversation, it becomes about funding and it becomes about knowledge. Because the takeaway I have is there was enough people on the January 1st Lachman fire that clearly didn't have enough wildfire experience and maybe were more knowledgeable in structure fires that left a smoldering area. And I wonder how much. You know, I did speak with one of the battalion chiefs, and I asked them, have you ever fought a fire in the state park? And he said, no. So I. I just. It comes back to we're now losing more money for the fire department. We just had an experience that took out 7,000 structures. 12 people died. So to me, I'm. I look at it like this is a red alert, that the people that are responding to these fires need to have this knowledge of, say, like a Cal fire that spends more time, you know, fighting wildfires than the structure fires. And. And are they not going to be going to these specialized schools and learning these things? Because now we're cutting more budget when any. With my Takeaway is clearly there was so many things that went wrong. And even in the after action report that was even LAFD said all these things went wrong and we're going to take money away from something when to me, now's the time to really go dig in and figure out all these things that went wrong. How do we fix them? And it's probably needs money to fix a lot of these things and we're taking away from that. So to me, that just scares me so much. For my friends who live on the other side of Amalfi, that's exactly like right here. But the wind and the fire stop there. But the next fire is not going to stop there. And it's going to do get Brentwood, it's going to get Bel Air, it's going to get the Hollywood Hills. And if we're now not hiring more fire department, we're cutting the budget. I just worry that what happened and what went wrong at the Lockman is just the beginning.

[Freddie Escobar]

I mean, you're correct. It could it happen again? Absolutely. How do we prevent this from happening again is you got to have candid conversations with true leaders in a forum of lessons learned. Now you and I'll go backwards because, you know, I know that you've seen talking to you, you've seen you got good connections. You've seen the report that came out, a report that a very reputable chief wrote, asked to get his name redacted because they changed it. I want you to think about that. This, this gentleman has got a phenomenal reputation. He could make a phone call, bring an army of firefighters that will work for him, that will do the thing because of him because it's going to be good. And he asked his signature to be redacted. So there's an issue there because the leaders don't want to know the truth. Right. What I've learned is talking to my network at state parks, once the initial fire flank is off, there's a lot of checks that need to go because of environmentalists not wanting to cut it. Well, in my opinion, that's something that needs and I'm not a brush guy, but that needs to be addressed because I bet you if we got every resident and the people that want to do the right thing to stop that fire, they're going to have a dozer there to cut through whatever it is, whatever. And we don't want to ruin the environment. But what's more important, not doing the right thing at that incident and this, this was what occurs or go ahead and cut some endangered species, potential endangered species, make sure it's out and prevent this from happening again. So to prevent it from happening again, you got to have true leadership to come down and have a true discussion. And now they probably won't do that because then becomes a liability. And that is the saddest part to me.

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[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

You know, I don't even think it's a liability thing. I think it's a more political thing because from my knowledge now, talking to lawyers now every day almost for a year, the LAFD has immunity. Even if they said they could literally say we did this wrong, we it's our fault the Palestine's burned down, they're still immune. So it becomes a political thing. Karen Bass. Then they say, but we did this wrong because of. And now, now it's hurting Karen Bass, it's hurting city council members, hurting the fire, it's hurting the political image, but it's not a liability thing. They could literally, that report could have said 100%. You know, they almost could have said we lit the fire and still been immune the way it's legally set up. So it becomes just a PR thing, you know, because again, if Karen Bass wasn't running for mayor right now, she would, she would want the truth. She, if she was an honest, real leader, you would say, oh my God, these 12 people burned alive 7,000 structures. We need to have that report. We need to do five more reports after. We need to make sure this, let's put this in the history books. How to not have this happen again.

[Freddie Escobar]

I mean, I, I'll, I'll come out here, Let me know and I'll champion that, because that's what should happen. Because that's the right thing to do as a leader. It's the right thing for the residents as well. And, you know, you talk about telling the truth. I'd be remiss if I didn't bring this up. Chief Crowley told the truth and look what they did to her. They fired her. They shut her up.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

I mean, you, you threatened. From my knowledge, from your experience, you threatened telling the truth behind closed doors, and you were warned. You don't want to do that. And then look what they try to do.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

No, now you're dealing with your own situation. So it works across. Behind closed doors and in the, in the front of the doors, you know?

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah. And it's political. I mean, I, I'm, I mean, because you brought it up, it's an assassination, a character assassination to shut me up. Right. Because I was very local for the membership of an underfunded, understaffed fire department, period. We're spending $300 million on homelessness, and you're not willing to pay for mechanics, you're not willing to pay for street repairs. This is ludicrous. So they shut me up. The problem that they didn't realize is don't piss off a Marine. I'm going to come out, I'm going to be vindicated. And it's sad when I see my own affiliation, the iaff, what they're doing. You know, they're there to protect me, and they're not doing that. It's a political deal because we have a certain leader who is in bed, in my opinion. And I think all the action show with Karen Bass, with the LA County Federation, with the far left, the socialist movement. So they thought they were going to shut me up. And it's going to continue. I'm going to continue to go out. We have a tax measure that's going to hit the residents of Los Angeles. And being a homeowner, I get it, we don't want tax measures. I understand that. But as a leader for Local 112 and for the LAFD firefighters who are under the UFLAC organization for two decades, we fight for crumbs, we fight for budget. We gotta do this cut, we gotta do that cut. We finally said enough is enough. We're taking the hat, we're taking out of the hands, out of the politician, and we're going to put it to the Residents of Los Angeles, it's a half cent tax that the money is going to be specifically dedicated. So you know, every time you pay, this money is going to go to your fire department for new fire stations, for rebuilding fire stations, for apparatuses, for equipment, and for staffing the fire department. They can't take it away and do their own little projects doing this. We try to work with city council leadership and they would say, hey, that's a great idea, but I want to do this and I want to add this project. For my little project, I want to add this. So speaking to my brothers at LA county, one thing I wanted for sure is for this money to be dedicated if the residents and they should pass this measure for it to go specifically for the LAFD. For those five items, it will build a fire department for 20, 26. And then we even had to put verbiage in there that the city council has to continue to increase the LAFD budget because I know how they think.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Oh, you got this money now, you don't need the general fund city money.

[Freddie Escobar]

Exactly. And it's sad at the end of my career, I mean, that we have to do this. We've tried to work with them, we've tried to say they're going to do the right thing. And at the end of it, like you have said, it's all political and they're looking for their next step, their next venture other than doing the right thing. The right thing at the Lockman fire is to get together and say, how could we have prevented this? And if, you know what, excuse me, if I screwed up, I screwed up, I should have done A, B and C. What I do know about the Lachman fire, I've spoken to individuals that have said, hey, Chief, maybe we should leave this hose in play because it's still A, B and C. And whatever the discussion they have and they were directed to pick it up, I know that through the social media there was a little bit of battling between the boots on the ground. When I talk about the boots on the ground, the firefighters, the firefighter medics that are doing the work, we're soldiers, we get directions. And to fix this from happening again, the only way to do is get the lessons learned and make sure that we don't do that again and put policy in there to make sure it doesn't happen again. But it takes true leadership. And by them not wanting the fire, the chief who wrote it, they changed his report. They don't want that. And it's sad. It's sad. To me, I encourage all of them to come out here and walk around, talk to you, talk to your residents and see the challenges they have.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Well, the issue, what it comes down to, because I actually, you know, I'm talking to. I've now talked to the battalion chiefs. I've now talked to the boots on the ground. It's the same thing. Everyone's scared. Like, you use Chief Crowley if they're gonna. If they're gonna do that to the chief. No, everybody works too hard. They got families. They got, you know, bills to pay. And the risk versus the reward in the sense, like, yeah, you could say, oh, that's cowardly. Or, you know, they. They should want the truth out. Or, you know, you know, I read the comments section. People, you know, go real hard on what they feel, the expectations they would want out of these guys, but they're still human. And, you know, that's why I try to give them grace, because for me, I'm so mad. Like, you know, I want, you know, get on it, but you're risking your career, your family, all this. So that's the. The biggest takeaway is that this command structure is set up where the truth can't be told, even when they were there, because out of fear of. Of retaliation, you know, and that's a. That is a real big problem that. So thank God these guys are now getting subpoenaed, you know, for the lawsuit. And so they're going to feel legally they can speak their truth. Because I know from talking to a lot of them, it's been very heavy on their hearts and their conscious that they. They actually are part of this. And, you know, and. And they don't get to say, yeah, this went wrong. This. The state did this. I mean, think about this. I was told from a battalion chief that a state representative showed up and showed a map to the fire department at the Lockman site of all the plants in the endangered area that they shouldn't touch and then wouldn't let the fire department keep the map. Like, think about how weird these people all work for U.S. taxpayers. And you have an organization, the state Parks, that have a secret map that the community that's literally next to that, it's connected, that goes into people's backyards. They don't know that the state's operating secret maps where they're protecting plants and telling firefighters, oh, you can't do this, or this. And it goes back to the palaces fire in 2019. And they brought dozers up there and they cleared. They did half blade Half knot. And they cleared an area like a fire break. I think it was like 1500 acres. And the state parks went after the chief and they made this big incident and they. So they set this precedent where you put fear in the fire department because look what happened with the. The ladwp. They cleared some brush around an old pole in the state parks right here that they wanted to replace. The State fined them $1.9 million for just one little area. So that is a known thing, the fire. You think a chief, a battalion chief is going to risk losing, you know, million dollar fines for his. That's his career. If he brings up a dozer when he probably would want a dozer? Because, like, I brought it, I dumbed it down to somebody. I said, if you were playing like a, like a game, you know, like. And these are all pieces, and you got dozers, you got firefighters with hoses, you got all the helicopter, you got all these pieces. And then you got this, this area with all this dead brush and this grass. And you can use all these pieces to initially try to put out this fire. Or are you just going to select, oh, I'm not going to use the dozer. You're going to bring everything up.

[Freddie Escobar]

No, no, absolutely.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

But they've created this situation where they can't just bring anything up unless it's already like, you know, on January 7th, they were allowed to bring everything up because houses are burning down, it's full, but they're not allowed to bring up this stuff after a fire has been contained. But what we've now learned from the Lockman is a fire is technically in a wildlife wildfire, like in a. In nature. We now know it's smolder. So you can't say is contained. Like that idea of, you know, like a containment. The fire department will go on record. That guy said it was dead out. So you can't. And so you can't bring in dozers once it's dead out. That's like, right?

[Freddie Escobar]

And so think about that. So I believe that fire was 2019, 2020. You fast forward to the Lachman fire. Now we have another Pacific Palisades fire and the devastation. They should again get the leaders together to prevent this from happening. You mentioned that people are scared. They are scared because exactly what you said. They fired the fire chief. So if they fired the fire chief for telling the truth, she got fired for. I want to understand. She got fired for not. For not telling Mayor Bass the wind was coming. I mean, how crazy is that? She got fired for Saying the budget, which is 100% true. And then she said that she didn't do an after Action report, which is ludicrous. We got After Action Report. It takes time. But those are the three reasons the mayor's office said Chief Crowley was fired and they're all false. So they fired her. So that fear factor is there. You brought it up. What I am going through. What I'm going through is they wanted to shut me up. I was on tv. Mayor Bass said in her office, when are you going to stop? And I said, I'm going to stop when you stop. You need to talk to your communication people. You make it easy, tell the truth. And so I am bowing, not only now, today. And I got to thank my, excuse me to go off the record, my wife of 27 years for being a champion, my son, my daughter that are going through this because they're in that social media world. It breaks my heart and I don't want to start crying. Breaks my heart, what we are going through. But a family. But I saw my father come to this country, work his ass off to get a. You know, we were provided a. We're not in gangs, we didn't do drugs. We were provided an opportunity. We took that opportunity to tell him the truth. And that's what I am vowing to you, to all the residents of Los Angeles, to the listeners. My job's easy. I'm going to tell the truth. That's it. I'm not looking to the next step. I'm going to tell the truth. And I want to change what's happening in Los Angeles with the social experiment of far left, the socialism that's occurring. Mayor Bass, L.A. county Federation. We're sitting here where I said Tracy park in Council District 11. She has a socialist running against her and there's people supporting her. The socialists out here in the west side. It's crazy. Go take a look at what's happening in MacArthur Park. Why would you want to do that to me? We need to change LA council district by council district. And we need a mayor that's going to be moderate, that's going to be fair, that's not going to be crazy. Left, dangerously right. Somebody that's going to listen to the values and, and bring back Los Angeles to when I was a kid, to when you were talking about, and hopefully change California as well. Because California, a lot of people are leaving and it's changing. I mean, I think you agree with me.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Yeah, it's. What's so this experience that I've gone through that just altered. My whole brain is we've lost sight of common sense and our expectations of like our responsibility as just tax paying citizens and what we want out of leaders because we're so. Not me but the population is so in this, this fight against this party versus this party. And like the way I, I look at it is like it's become jerseys. You know sports like people will go fight at a football game like they're on the team when you know I've never been like that. I never cared about any sport that much. But I watch on social media people in the stands fighting with the jerseys. And that's what politics has come. And we're never going to be able to not have our houses burned down, our streets not covered with people smoking fentanyl, just people laundering all of our tax money to these rich people and their NGOs. If we just keep focusing on the, the, the teams. And it's. I don't, I will never play that game because again that environment created my whole community burning down. So we need to get away from that and just get to what are our expectations. Like before our house burned down in front of my son's public school right here in Palisades, Palisades elementary, there was a homeless lady cleaning her private parts at 7:30 in the morning almost every day right in front of the school. And you know the cops would come, she'd pull her pants back down, they would leave. If a normal non homeless, you know, maybe she wasn't on drugs, whatever her situation, I don't know. But if it, if a Palisadium lady was opening, taking her underwear down in front of it. Preschool, preschools across the street, first grade, second grade.

[Freddie Escobar]

All.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

I mean this is, this was happening. That person is getting put in a, in a car. They're leaving there, they got court case coming up, they're getting hit with a. Probably some, you know where they're gonna pop up on the citizen app from now on when they're in your neighborhood. You know that. So that's what's happened where it's okay to do that right in front of. So that's not Democrat, that's not Republican. That's like it was a red alert. Common sense. You can't have people cleaning their private parts on the sidewalk in front of elementary schools at 7:30 in the morning. So I don't even, I'm like you, I don't do the whole. And it's, it's, we got to get back to like basic level of.

[Freddie Escobar]

And the first thing they got to agree on is this is a mental issue. But the mental issue is caused from the drug addiction and the drug abuse that a lot of the council members are saying it's okay to do drugs at my park. They're encouraging it. They're doing, hey, here's a pipe, here's a pipe, here's a needle. And they'll say, well, it reduces and saves lives because they're not sharing the same needle. I said, man, all you're doing is encouraging them.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

No, I mean, I'm messing up the stat. You know, it's not. If it's not 1400, it's 1500 people OD'd in Los Angeles. And then the mayor will brag and be like, oh, we've, we've cut homeless by 1300 since last year, but doesn't reference 1300 or what. The numbers almost match of OD dead people. And the people you say are off the street. You didn't say like off the street in a, in a coroner's van. So there's nowhere in society people should be doing fentanyl, smoking crack. There's. It's not society that you cannot have a life. And so we needed to stop that. That's not even a maybe. Like, this sounds crazy that we have to talk out loud and say, hey, let's all stop the, the drugs that kill you on the street and let that happen.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah, I mean, just being in the field, I worked at Fire Station 9, which is on 7th Street. They call it Skid Row. They got like five or six blocks. They put new housing, new mid rise housing to house the homelessness. You don't see a difference in the field. I worked there 48 hours. One, one day. Total runs out of that fire station was close to 100. With all the apparatuses there, all in a five block area. You still have companies coming in from other areas doing that. It's. Again, if you really want to fix it with these alleged leaders, let's have a true conversation because these aren't people from Los Angeles. They're not Angelenos. They weren't from south la. Oh, they're not. They're from everywhere else. We work at an area where the Union Station comes in and they're, they're bussed here. We get 911 calls to say, hey, I'm, I have heart pain or I have chest pain or I need a 911 service. We pull up, they're there with the luggage bag from whatever state they're from. And I Got a one way ticket here. I don't know where to go from here. People are coming to Los Angeles because we keep giving and giving and giving. And like I said, I got a massive heart. You have a massive heart. You care. But at some point we have to have some type of enforcement. And what we've been doing is an abyss. It is not working. This social experiment needs to stop. And when it needs to stop, I believe 2026, we got a mayor's election coming up. We need an option of what's happening. Mayor Bass, I always say, when Uncle Joe, Joe Biden, when he was the president, I was out in the middle of the Pacific with him. We want to be on a ship. I want him to survive. I want him to strive right as our president. He was elected by us. Same with President Trump. I want him to survive. I want him to do the best. Same with Mayor Bass. We all want her to do the best. And everything she does well, we do well. Is it going well? No. It's time for a change. Let's get the checklist. We need people to come out and challenge her. We need new faces. We have council district races that are coming up. The odd ones are coming up. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11. We need people because there's far left movement. That's what this is all about. LA County Federation, they think I'm the Kukui guy. I'm a registered Dem, right? And I try not to be the D R or I, I try not to bring it in, but I'm a registered Dem and my party doesn't exist. The these guys are running a socialist Democratic party right now, and it's in Los Angeles. You could see it in the street. You could see the response times, you could see what's happening. And each district is different, each council person is different. And I could tell you our top two that I'm proud we've endorsed and that are good. There's champions in city council. The two that come off the top of my head, who enforce the laws, who are moderate, who even change, I mean, I think they're independent. John lee, Council, District 12, Porter Ranch, Chatsworth area. His resident, phenomenal, always. He's had two elections, we've endorsed them, he's won, but there's always a socialist running against him. And now this time here in Council District 11, Tracy Park. Tracy park came to us as an unknown. We did our homework. Just like the mayor's race, we don't have an endorsed candidate. So they come down to the union, we interview Them, we ask some tough questions. We endorse those that are going to support our issues. Tracy park came in. I got a call from them. Mayor Garcetti, Nuri Martinez. Hey, this guy's our guy. He's the insider. He's gonna win. Which they didn't know at the time. The, The LA County Federation called me as well. Hey, this guy's our guy. He's gonna win. Okay, we'll take it. We'll take into consideration what you're saying. Let's see how they do in the interviews. Right. We went with an unknown and she won. She worked her ass off to represent the residents of Council District 11 and does the right thing. When you talk about council members, John Lee, Tracy park, there's others, but those are the two that stand out, that truly do the right thing for the residents. Not saying the other ones don't, just saying these two stand out.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

How do you beat Karen Bass? Because everyone I talk to, they're like, the word is rigged. But it's not rigged in the sense of, like, cheating. It's. They say it's rigged with the unions and the funding and the like. What do they mean when they say that? It's just like, it's so controlled on who.

[Freddie Escobar]

It's difficult. It's money, right? It's money that you, you go in there. So the unions endorsed. They got LA County Federation, which I'm part of that. I'm part. We're part of it. So they use money to push their candidates through. Right. And it's not all the unions, because, like I mentioned, Tracy's got. She didn't get the LA County Federation endorsement, which is ludicrous because she works phenomenal with the union. They don't like her because she's not far left enough. That's why they don't like her.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

And with the whole far left, is that just come down to money also? Because there's more people funding that. And I mean, or they. Everyone just thinks that's a new, cool thing to do. And it's like, what? Yeah. How did it happen? Because you keep saying this. When did you watch this experiment?

[Freddie Escobar]

Well, it's happened. I mean, let's happen. It's happened in New York. So look at what the mayor in New York want. He got a lot of support because there's a lot of young, young voters in Los Angeles can't afford housing, can't afford this. And then you're promised all this false, false stuff. Give me, give me, give me, give me. Right? That's what I believe is happening. So when you go out and you promise all this stuff, you're going to be able to afford rent, we're going to be able to afford housing and everything. They're going to go ahead and give that individual an opportunity and it's not happening. I mean, another one where I work right now is CD14 and we had an endorse Kevin De Leon. Remember, they attacked Kevin De Leon. They tried to make him a racist because of the tapes that went on at. They were talking about redistricting. There was tapes. They're trying to call him a racist. Right. Kevin De Leon is the furthest thing is from a racist. And so they attacked him. What they put, they put a far left young attorney in there and she won in that district. Right now it's an abyss. The homeless is getting more further out there. She doesn't believe it's a drug problem. She believes it's a mental problem. They build housing there. The homeless don't want to go in there because there's rules, so they get kicked out of there. So this socialist experiment is an experiment with, I believe, young voters that are wanting to see what they could get out of the government. Right. The, the pay hourly, hourly pay in Los Angeles has gone up. I mean, I'm happy for those families. But if I owned a company or a restaurant and I had to pay a waitress $22 an hour to work and I needed four or five waitresses, I may be out of a business. So now not only are you not getting $22, now the city loses on a small individual business as well. So I believe that is kind of like the Cliff Notes for my arena of what's happening with the socialist experiment. It's just far left of, gimme, gimme, gimme. What can I get.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

What up? It's a lot, you know, my takeaway because I. My wife is very. Talks to God a lot. She's always praying and she is a very bright shining light in faith. And she's always like, you know, God uses everything for good. And, you know, as Pitbull said on her song I'll do it, God closes one door to open another. And, you know, I've done so many interviews where they're like, oh, you're an activist. And I always push back. I'm like, I'm not an activist. I just want accountability for what happened here in the palaces. But the more I got deeper and deeper into this, it's become. I want accountability for my whole city for where I grew up, you know, and then obviously pass that for my state. But what, what can I do? Just making posts and, and I realize nothing. So this will be airing January 8th. So on January 7th, at the one year anniversary of the Palisades fire, I will be announcing that I am running to replace Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles. She should have resigned on January 7. January 8. And the fact that she is out here trying to cover up the Palisade's fire to this day continues to destroy our city. I cannot sit in my dirt lot and do nothing. So no more just making videos, calling her out. My goal is to call her out and get her out of office and let her retire and she can become a podcaster.

[Freddie Escobar]

No shit.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

All right, well, good for you.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah. And please thank your wife and your kids because that's not an easy decision. You know, say you're elected as mayor, you're 24, 7, 365 days a year. And I've seen what you've done for Pacific Palisades. And I wouldn't call you an activist, I'd call you. I just want the truth out.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

And that's would be my goal as a mayor. And that's why I don't even want to ever be referred to as a politician. I just want to go and stop everything that's happening, you know, and get the truth, whether it's with the fire department, with lapd, just all just really just get the truth of what's happening, what's gone wrong. Because I just want the LA that I got to grow up in the la, I got to be on a TV show and go, you know, it was the coolest people moved here. They tell me this all the time because they saw the life that we got to live on the TV show. And that was, that was the only thing real about the show I was on was the background how amazing Los Angeles was. So I just want to run against Karen Bass to stop the lies and the COVID ups, you know, so I don't, you know, I don't know if I'll win or not, but I know I will definitely make it a lot harder for her to just keep lying every day and not be pressed.

[Freddie Escobar]

Well, you know, what's the beauty of it? And I don't know how other unions do it. Because you brought up the unions, I brought up LA county federations supporting a lot of far left people I know in the city of Los Angeles. We invite all the candidates in, we interview everybody. Everybody's a fair, fair game. Day one. There's no favorites or anything. Hence Tracy park won. Right. So we're. We'll. I will see you. Hopefully everything turns out good for me at our interviews at our union hall for mayor because we, we invite our people to come in. What are your goals? We tell you our issues and everything. And you know, hopefully during that race. Right. And we'll find out really the winner in November. We have our measure that we are. When I say we, I want the residents to know this and not to take away from the announcement because it's awesome. The residents of Los Angeles are going to have an opportunity to vote on a half cent measure to properly fund their fire department. And all that money is going to the fire department. We wrote it so tight that these individuals and I talk about these individual. The council members can't take away from the fire department to fund their homeless project. All these little projects that in my opinion don't need to be funded. So come November and we are using our money to get the signatures to get it on the ballot for November. That's how important it is to myself, to the members of Local 112 and to the residents of Los Angeles to prevent another Pacific Palisades, to have those discussions that we talked about of preventing another fire at Lockman and making sure we bring the state in. I'll come out of retirement to tell the truth. That'd be great. Right? You're the mayor. We'll tell the truth and just say no, you know what, these are endangered species. But I think lessons learned from 2025, let's make sure and let's do a good cut around the perimeter. If we lose endangered species, we lose them. But this is the right thing to do because of our lessons learned. And we need to have those conversations with real people who aren't on a political agenda. That's what we need.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Yeah. And that, and that's the goal is that all these communities should have fire breaks. It's anybody that says firebreaks don't make a difference, forget even just the Lockman thing. All the dead brush in these state parks, they get federal money to maintain it. And Newsom, all he does is use the word treats. Oh, we treated this treat is. Is not clear in dead brush. They use all this lingo. So they already have the money. The feds gave them the money to clear the dead brush. When I used to go on these hikes right here, I would. It would just. You would go every step just sounded like it was not live plants. That if you were a environmentalist or a plant Lover, this is not beautiful plants. I'm talking about, I'm talking about dead, just dry brush. Been sitting there for 60 years. Just like, almost looks like hay. Dry hay. So, you know, there's only so much as mayor I would be able to do to the point where I'm, you know, I always hear the mayor talking about the city suing everybody. I'm going to sue the state as mayor, I'm going to sue Carb, all the people that are stopping Los Angeles from clearing brush next to their city. I'm going to, you know, I always hear everyone suing every I as mayor will sue the state of California to come get their dead brush that's surrounding our community.

[Freddie Escobar]

So let me, let me ask you, just because we're talking about it, you go back to the incident that they're saying started the Pacific Palisades fired in 2024. Has any, I'm sorry, 2025. Has any state representative come out? Have you communicated with anyone and said, hey, yeah, that's our policy. We can't cut. Have they admitted to that?

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Well, it's in their manual. So they, their manual of 2025 says that. And in their text messages that we've got in the lawsuit, they talk about, oh, get the maps up there, that's in this area that's protected. And then to the point, the craziest thing they did, and it's, they got photos of it in the text. On January 2nd, after LAFD made the fire breaks, they went and asked LAFD to help them and they took dead brush and they put it all on top of the, the firebreaks. Because in their, in their minds, I'm assuming they don't want the average hiker to go off the wrong trail. And it's a firebreak. So what, they took the dead brush and they put it back onto the fire breaks.

[Freddie Escobar]

So no fire break.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So no. This is a day after the fire. It's still smoldering and they're adding brush back on. And in their own park manual, it says that they're supposed to close the state park so they don't need to cover up those lines. They're supposed to close the state park until there's no dangerous condition. So what they should have done, and it's in their own manual, is they close the state park and they monitor it for a week, two weeks, to make sure it's. It's not still smoldering, knowing a wind event is coming in three, four, five days. It's public news. Not to Mention where something really interesting in 2019. So many people. There was the fire in the highlands and people sent me photos of LAFD guys camped out sleeping in people's backyards. Monitoring that. And I know that didn't happen in my gut is because there's no budget. They. If they can't get paid for working on holidays and overtime right now, you think they were going to offer these guys to go sleep on the 2025 fire? They're going to go sleep in people's backyards. So we know that was something that LAFD was willing to do. As you know, I've seen the photos. They're just camped out. They got blankets. So what changed from 2019 to 2025? Karen Bass Obviously cut their budgets where they can't. There's no. Battalion chief is sending up guys. I'll go sleep up there for the week.

[Freddie Escobar]

You know, her. Her priority, and everybody's seen it, is is the homelessness.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Yeah. To keep it going.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Let's be clear.

[Freddie Escobar]

That's. That's her priority. And it's not. Whatever she's doing is, is not. Is not working.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Period.

[Freddie Escobar]

Period. Done. Next, let's.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

And that's where. If she had resigned or resigned or said, I'm not running for reelection, I'm not even thinking about running for mayor. But the fact that she has the audacity to play it off, make sure there's a cover up of her biggest failure. One of her biggest failures. You could argue that her biggest failure is the homelessness because we now know 1500 people almost died last year. That's on her hands. So, you know, 12 people burned alive, plus 15. The amount of people that are dying on her watch. And she thinks she should run it back. That's why I'm. I'm running. Just to. Just to, you know, make it. Make it harder for her. I don't know.

[Freddie Escobar]

Best of luck. And not only for your mayoral campaign, but also on rebuilding. Not only you, not the residents of Papificates Altadena. I live in Ventura City. I had friends during the Woolsey fire who lost their houses. I was up 7, 8 years ago, and they're just now houses where there's only maybe one or two vacant lots where there wasn't 200 houses here. 7,000 houses. I took a look from coming up here and it's emotional and, you know, I wish you the best. I thank your family, your kids. And not only rebuilding as well. I know we were talking earlier that they're making you put it's going to cost, I think you mentioned 1.2, 1.5.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Yeah. At least a million million. Two to put in caissons or pilings that were not. Are not here, but now they have to be here. So now they care how my house.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah. And I think, you know, go out there and let's get that money because we should be assisting people that had their houses as well. And not that I don't have a bleeding heart for homelessness, but the money in the homeless just goes to an abundance abyss. You know, do something. We got to do something to help.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Well, it's like somebody like Newsom is, you know, he'll be like, oh, you know, the federal government's not giving me this $44 billion to fire it. Is any of that money going to rebuild one house? No. Where is that money going? It's going to pay your debts and all the money you owe, you're going to launder it. If you write a new letter to the federal government that lists the 7,000 houses you're going to help rebuild and then the houses in Altadena, you're going to help you put that together. I bet the federal government sends you a different response. But this whole, oh, we need money for what we're not. It's just like the fire aid concert. 100 million raised and then they go, oh, it wasn't directly for fire victims. Well, that's why people sent money in because they thought it.

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So.

[Freddie Escobar]

And I didn't know this way. Are you telling me the fire Aid concert that was held at.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

In Inglewood not. None of it went to.

[Freddie Escobar]

Are you me.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

There's an investigation that's still this. The bigger story is coming because we had to wait for tax filings, everything but that. That's still coming back. And so is it.

[Freddie Escobar]

If there's any truth, remote truth to that.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Oh, it's all true. It's all true.

[Freddie Escobar]

Gross.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

They couldn't even prove, even in their own fake report that they paid Laughman and Watkins this, you know, crazy. The same law firm that Karen Bass uses, you know, one of the. Even in their own report, there were I think there's like 1500 NGOs that got the 100 million in their own report in defense, they said, well, several of them did give direct to fire victims. I asked Chat, GPT, Gronk, Gemini, Google asked what what several mean. I never got a number more than nine. So out of 1500 of these NGOs that took the 100 million, even their own defensive report says several Got gave money directly to fire. They're telling you nine out of 1500 gave money to the.

[Freddie Escobar]

You know, I mean, in situations where, like, you, you built your house, your house was burnt down, now they're requiring you to have additional safety mechanisms. I believe that money should be able to assist families like yours and others, because a million dollars is a lot of money to come up with. You're already dealing with rebuilding a new house. Now you got to come up with the financial component to put just the retaining walls needed to build a house.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

And here's the best part about this. That just truly drives my brain crazy. So you want me to put a million dollars into a foundation when I know right now you're cutting the fire department's budgets. You're already letting the state park grow back to the plants that you're protected. They're already coming back. You have no plans of making a fire break the water reservoir that's empty on my street. They have said, or they're not filling up the Palisades reservoir with water, so you're keeping the 6 million gallons that's supposed to be right there empty. So you want me to spend a million dollars in cement for a house that I know you're not going to care about burning down a second time?

[Freddie Escobar]

Yeah.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

So on that note, vote for me for Bear, but no stream. Superficial. Listen to Heidi's music Shop.

[Freddie Escobar]

Pratt.

[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

Daddy Crystals. Thank you so much.

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[Podcast Host / Mayoral Candidate]

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