America Watches the Vote Count in California

Summary

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The Josh Hammer Show

Episode: America Watches the Vote Count in California

Date: June 4, 2026
Host: Jeff Vaughn (filling in for Josh Hammer)
Special Guests:

• Dan Schneider (VP, Free Speech America – Media Research Center)
• Will Swaim (California Policy Center)

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Overview

This episode offers an on-the-ground look at California’s contentious 2026 election, focusing on both the Los Angeles mayoral and California gubernatorial races. Host Jeff Vaughn navigates through the slow vote counting process, addresses rising conservative voices, critiques the Democratic machine, and hosts expert guests to analyze media bias, emerging polling trends, and the backgrounds of key candidates like Spencer Pratt and Javier Becerra.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. LA Mayoral Race: Social Media Disruption and Voter Sentiment

(00:36–12:00)

• Spencer Pratt’s Viral Candidacy:

  • Vaughn introduces LA mayoral challenger Spencer Pratt, noting his campaign’s savvy use of AI-generated social media videos (e.g., the “Pilates” spot at [02:42]), which directly address day-to-day city issues like crime, homelessness, and wildfires.
  • “Spencer Pratt is addressing [the city’s problems]… And that's just one of many, and that's not even the best one…” (Vaughn, [03:29])

• Dan Schneider on Communications Strategy:

  • Schneider applauds Pratt's relatable messaging and notes its resemblance to the left’s historic pop-culture tactics. He reflects on the shift, saying,

    “We finally have a candidate who actually is far superior at communicating at a very basic level to California voters. And that's putting him in a position where he potentially could actually win this race.” ([03:45])

  • Schneider likens Pratt’s use of the left’s own methods to jiu-jitsu, using cultural narratives and humor to break down stigma around voting Republican.
  • “Spencer Pratt is now using these techniques to say, look, it's okay to vote for somebody other than a Marxist, and breaking down those barriers that the left has been so effective at creating.” ([05:56])
  • Both speakers argue Pratt speaks to “the hearts” of Angelenos who “want change” beyond the city’s persistent problems.

• Debate Performance and Voter Hope:

  • Vaughn recalls Pratt’s strong debate showing ([07:43]), which, paired with the viral videos, forced Karen Bass to back out of further debates.
  • The conversation reflects a broader sense of “impending doom” paired with hope, given the Democratic party’s entrenched power and the distrust over slow vote counting.

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2. The Power and Controversy of AI in Political Messaging

(10:55–12:26)

• Increasing Adoption Across Campaigns:
  • Schneider notes GOPs’ recent embrace of AI-driven ad creativity (Paxton’s anti-Talarico spot highlighted on a previous episode).
  • He contrasts this with the left’s initial enthusiasm for AI (i.e., Google's controversial image-generation outputs) and their subsequent unease as the right leverages these tools:

    “It was just a year ago when Google's AI system was trying to tell us that George Washington was a black lesbian… Now the left is freaking out that the right has figured out how to use AI to communicate actual messages.” ([11:24])

  • These AI tools are seen as helping conservatives bypass traditional media gatekeepers and directly reach voters.

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3. California’s Infamous Vote Counting Process

(13:08, 23:39, 34:31)

• Delays and Distrust:

  • Vaughn repeatedly emphasizes California’s uniquely slow ballot tallying:

    “California allows for those to be counted up to seven days after the election. I know it's crazy… Florida got theirs done in just seconds after the polls closed.” ([13:08])

  • Every registered voter is mailed a ballot—leading to logistical confusion, errors, and perceived openings for fraud (“I have two registered voters… and for some reason we get three ballots.” [13:08]).
  • Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy laments changes under Gov. Newsom:

    “And the governor went in and made sure everybody just gets mailed a ballot. And people move a lot. So you can live in a house and there'd be three other families that lived there in the last 10 years. They don't clean up the roles. So you get a lot of [extra] balance.” ([23:54])

• National Political Accusations:

  • President Trump calls California’s vote-counting process “the big cheat,” and claims a federal investigation is underway, which the media is quick to dismiss as unsubstantiated.
  • Vaughn details the widespread cynicism this fuels, especially among conservatives and change-minded voters.

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4. The Gubernatorial Race: Steve Hilton vs. Javier Becerra

(13:08–22:49, 23:54–33:20)

• Current Standings and Candidates:

  • As of this episode, Republican Steve Hilton leads at 28%, Democrat Javier Becerra at 25%.
  • The top two will proceed to a November runoff:

    “It appears… that Steve Hilton and Javier Becerra most likely will carry over to the November election and we'll have a Republican versus a Democrat for California Governor.” ([13:08])

• Examination of Javier Becerra’s Record (with Will Swaim):

  • Swaim calls Becerra the “empty suit” candidate and notes a dearth of substantive public records or media appearances.
  • “This was a guy who… spent 12 terms in the House of Representatives and did nothing—like literally.” ([18:07])
  • As California Attorney General, Becerra notably sued Trump “120 times,” yet ignored warnings about fraud in the state’s unemployment system and was inactive on riots and campus protests ([18:07]).
  • As Biden’s HHS secretary, Becerra was considered a “no-show”—losing track of “85,000 child migrants,” and staff called him “an idiot” and “stupid.” ([18:07])

• “Witness Protection Candidate”:

  • Swaim alleges that Democratic insiders purposefully elevated Becerra because he represented “the safe alternative,” being unlikely to take strong or controversial policy positions.
  • Swaim:

    “Javier Becerra is like the witness protection candidate for the Democrats. And again, I think they like this.” ([25:35])

• Campaign Money, Bots, and Scandals:

  • Swaim discusses Steyer’s funding of a report uncovering possible bot-driven pro-Becerra and anti-Steyer social campaigns, suggesting dark money and external manipulation helped Becerra’s rise ([25:35]).
  • Swaim raises a brewing scandal: the alleged theft of $250,000 in campaign funds involving Becerra’s former chief of staff and Gavin Newsom’s aides ([27:35]).

    “His best response is, he didn't know... Becerra's best response is, I didn't know that $250,000 just was swept from my account. So the guy either can't watch his own business or he is lying flat out.” ([27:35])

• Democratic Machine Realpolitik:

  • Business interests, fearing Steyer’s progressive agenda, threw support behind the more palatable Becerra—even as they don’t fear he’ll change much ([29:57]).
  • There is skepticism among both panelists that any Republican (even Hilton) can break the Democratic supermajority in the general election, given the 2-to-1 registration advantage.

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5. Media Bias in Election Coverage

(38:15–End)

• NBC News Photo Bias:
  • Vaughn describes how network graphics during mayoral election coverage favored the two female, left-leaning candidates with flattering headshots while showing a dour, “constipated”-looking photo of Spencer Pratt:

    “Bass and Rahman look like they're ready for a Vogue cover, right? They're smiling, they're engaging… The person that looks like he just got bad news from his accountant, he seems angry. You know, they did that on purpose… That's not a coincidence.” ([38:15])

  • Vaughn emphasizes that such editorial decisions are made by “management,” not anchors, and are part of a wider pattern of implicit bias in mainstream media presentation.

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Notable Quotes

• Dan Schneider on Political Communication:

  “We finally have a candidate who actually is far superior at communicating at a very basic level to California voters. And that's putting him in a position where he potentially could actually win this race.” ([03:45])

• Will Swaim on Becerra:

  “This was a guy who… spent 12 terms in the House of Representatives and did nothing—like literally.” ([18:07])
  “Javier Becerra is like the witness protection candidate for the Democrats.” ([25:35])

• Kevin McCarthy on Vote Counting Process:

  “Florida count all their ballots in a couple hours. And we take weeks in California. It didn’t used to be this way.” ([23:54])

• Jeff Vaughn on Media Bias:

  “Bass and Rahman look like they're ready for a Vogue cover, right?... The person that looks like he just got bad news from his accountant, he seems angry. You know, they did that on purpose.” ([38:15])

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 02:42: Sample of Spencer Pratt’s viral AI video (“Pilates”)
• 03:45: Schneider on Pratt’s communications strategy
• 07:43: Impact of debate performance on mayoral race
• 11:24: AI’s growing role in conservative campaigns
• 13:08: Current gubernatorial polling; problems with mail-in ballots
• 18:07: Swaim on Javier Becerra’s record (“empty suit”)
• 23:54: McCarthy on ballot counting delays in CA
• 25:35: Swaim’s analysis of Becerra’s rise, bot campaigns, and media manipulation
• 27:35: Discussion of campaign finance scandal tied to Becerra
• 29:57: Why business interests back Becerra over Steyer
• 34:31: News of Trump’s “big cheat” accusation, further commentary on LA mayor’s race
• 38:15: Vaughn details NBC’s photo bias against conservative candidate

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Resources and Further Information

• Media Research Center: mrc.org and mrcfreespeechamerica.org ([12:07])
• California Policy Center: californiapolicycenter.org
• Radio Free California podcast: National Review

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Tone & Takeaways

Throughout, the tone is pointed, concerned, and direct, frequently invoking frustration with California’s bureaucracy and the Democratic party’s dominance. The hosts and guests share a sense of urgency for conservative voters seeking change—even as the mechanisms of vote counting and media influence are portrayed as formidable obstacles.

Listeners are left with a sense that California’s elections represent larger national struggles over political messaging, technological adaptation, and trust in democratic processes. The episode particularly underscores the impact of social media strategy, grassroots sentiment, and institutional inertia as America “watches the vote count in California.”

Transcript

[A]

Grainger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners, lights about to fail, filters ready to clog H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.

[B]

And good Thursday to you. I'm Jeff Vaughn filling in all this week on the Josh Hammer show. Thank you very much to Josh Hammer. Hope he's enjoying his time off. I know he will be back on Monday. Thank you very much for joining us here. I'm Jeff Vaughn in Los Angeles. We're going to be covering some politics today, some California politics coming up. We'll talk about Javier Becerra and just how he rose so quickly, so rapidly in the polls to where he looks to be one of two contenders to go to November to run for governor of California. We'll talk about that. But first, let's talk about Los Angeles. I know this is a national story for a lot of you as well. Spencer Pratt has caught fire not only here but across the country because of the way that his campaign is using social media. I've been certainly very impressed with the use of social media and how he is using that to call out the real problems here in Los Angeles, which I see firsthand every single day with the crime and the homelessness and the dirty streets. And I was evacuated two weeks ago because of wildfires not related to the fires a year ago. That continues to be a very stubborn problem here in Los Angeles. And Spencer Pratt is addressing that, of course. You know incumbent Mayor Karen Bass. She is running for re election and it looks to be at this point in time that she will make it through to November. The very latest numbers I checked this morning here in California, it's going to take days and days and days to have all the votes counted. But as of right now, incumbent Mayor Karen bass is up 35% to Spencer Pratt at 30%. The top two will go on to November. So it's very interesting to have my guest in today, Dan Schneider. He's with the Media Research Center. He is the VP of Free Speech America with mrc. Dan, thank you so much for being here.

[C]

Hey, Jeff, great to be with you. It's a great show.

[B]

Oh, thank you. Well, let's talk A little bit about Spencer Pratt. I want to show a real quick video just to set up what we're talking about here and his social media prowess. This is going to be one of the many videos that his campaign has released. This one is called Pilates. Take a look.

[D]

All right, class, great job today. Hey, I have to tell you something. Promise you won't get mad? I'm voting for Spencer Pratt. Get mad. I'm voting for Spencer Pratt, too. Did someone mention Spencer? Spencer Pratt? Um, no.

[E]

No.

[D]

Oh, because I'm actually voting for him. Oh, so are we. I just don't know if we can say that too loud over here. Say what? Spencer Pratt. Um, he's got my vote. Wait, is everyone here voting for Spencer Pratt?

[B]

And Dan, that's just one of many, and that's not even the best one, to tell you the truth. I mean, it does really kind of hit to what a lot of people are feeling in la. What's your response? This is, as I understand, all put together by artificial intelligence.

[C]

Yeah, Jeff, Just from a communication standpoint, you know, he's my hero. And when I say that, that's with decades of experience. When I first moved to Washington D.C. three decades ago to work here, there was a congressman named Dick Armey from Texas. And I loved Dick Armey. He was a former econ professor, and he'd go to the floor of the House with these economic modeling charts, you know, supply demand curves. And it resonated with me. And I was shocked then to discover that nobody else in the country understood a thing he was saying. And the left was so good at speaking at a very granular level to the American public. George Bush is trying to throw Grandma off a cliff with that kind of commercial. And that sort of commercial just seemed stupid and silly and didn't communicate any actual ideas. But that's what the left dominated, and they were winning. And we finally have a candidate who actually is far superior at communicating at a very basic level to California voters. And that's putting him in a position where he potentially could actually win this race.

[B]

Yeah, for sure. And all of those videos have broken through. And I think as somebody who lives in Los Angeles, the people that want change have always had this kind of impending doom, especially now, because we all know that this takes so long when it comes to the vote count. We see the numbers continue to go up for those favored candidates. Right. And we all think that there's something in the background going on and that change will never, ever really happen. But yet you get this hope with Spencer Pratt. And he's touching all the right buttons, pushing all the right buttons in the way that I feel just living in Los Angeles. That conversation that the Pilates moms are having is a conversation that I've had on the pool deck, at water polo and at school with other parents about just, you know, have you thought about, you know, the election? And it seems to me that it's not only catching fire and helping him, but it was a fire that was already there, Dan, and has just since been flamed and fanned and allowed to grow.

[C]

You know, in the martial arts, jiu jitsu is the. Is the form where you use your opponent's strength and weight against him. And that's what Spencer Pratt is doing. The left has demonized being a Republican or being rational. Even, you know, rationality is a form of racism and sexism. And so it made it impossible for somebody on the right to have a logical conversation, to try to persuade people on ideas. And Spencer Pratt is now using these techniques to say, look, it's okay to vote for somebody other than a Marxist, and breaking down those barriers that the left has been so effective at creating. And let me just add this. The left has also tried to use Hollywood and tried to use those techniques. Hillary Clinton brought in executives from Hollywood. Kamala Harris did the same. They were trying to get the Steven Spielberg's of the world to create their campaign commercials. It never worked because they were, you know, the left was trying to normalize things like putting men into girls bathrooms. And that just was not going to work, no matter how much magic was brought in from Hollywood. Spencer Pratt is talking about very practical things like let's not have drug needles on the corners of schools, and can't we have a place where it's safe to actually walk down a sidewalk? And so it's their common sense policy solutions he's pursuing, and he's communicating it in a way that resonates kind of like the whole Team America movie from a number of years ago, using images, kind of funny, creative images to speak rationally to people, really speaking to their hearts. Yeah.

[B]

And I also think that you got to be able to back it up as a candidate. You could put a video out there, but if you're not able to talk on your feet and not able to get to those talking points and to kind of translate from the video to real life, then it may fall flat. And I think that that's where somebody like Spencer Pratt and a lot of Republicans that have this policy down and have what the people want, they Got their, you know, their finger on the pulse of what people want. That's the real key, because you might remember there was one debate, only one debate. Spencer Pratt, he won. And by an overwhelming margin. Like, I think they did an instant poll right after the debate, 85% of the people said Spencer Pratt won that debate. I watched it. I. I would agree with that. Karen Bass did. Okay. Nithi Raman, who is one of the third. She's in third place. She's a city councilwoman, democratic socialist, who's also running. I would say that not only the videos help, but if you can back up those videos with substance and you can bring to the table a good debate performance and that Dan got Karen Bass to say no more debates. So it's the. It's a one, two punch almost.

[C]

Yeah. And I'm not sure if the people in Los Angeles really understand that the whole nation really is watching this. Maybe you all assume the whole nation is watching you, since you're so accustomed to the whole nation watching Hollywood and that sort of thing. But Karen Bass, her latest slogan is vote for me, because I'm pursuing change, and I'm just scratching my head. Like, you've been mayor for four years. What. What kind of. What are you trying to change? Because you're the one responsible for. For the status quo. Whereas Spencer Pratt truly is the guy who's wanting change and. And change that 99% of people, you know, probably support.

[B]

Yeah. And Karen Bass just yesterday said that she was going to, you know, clean up the city. She was going to get rid of the tents. It's like you've been in office for four years. That hasn't happened. And that goes back to that impending doom that I think people have that want change. Everybody here in Los Angeles is kind of walking around on pins and needles. We just know that change is so close, but we know the Democratic machine can just pull the rug right out from under you.

[C]

Yeah, but the good people of California have been brainwashed for so long. I remember I visited California. Now, it may have been 10 years ago. I was shocked. I couldn't go past a Starbucks or go into a Home Depot or any other kind of establishment without seeing a sign on the front door saying, you know, sawdust is known to cause cancer in the state of California. Or coffee beans are known to cause cancer in the state of California. Like, you know, the excessive, massive government control of people's individual lives, yet you can't stop a fire in the Palisades. Just the insanity of California government at every Level Spencer Pratt, God bless him. If he can't win, I don't know what it means both for California and for the rest of the country.

[B]

Well, Dan, I kind of want to wrap this up and give you about a minute here because I want to be able to talk about what has happened with these social media videos that he has put out because they are catching fire at other campaigns. I saw Paxton ran one against Talarico that was very similar and AI generated video and I thought it was very impactful. In fact, we ran it here on the Josh Hammer show yesterday. But just tell me a little bit about how this will resonate across campaigns in the future.

[C]

Yeah, well, it was just a year ago when Google's AI system was trying to tell us that George Washington was a black lesbian, when you tried to create an image and the left loved that. Now the left is freaking out that the right has figured out how to use AI to communicate actual messages. And it is effective. Again, it breaks down the barriers that the left has established directed to prevent actual conversation and dialogue. These are creative, interesting ways to commute messages that really do speak to the heart of regular Americans.

[B]

Well, it's so nice to have you on, Dan. Thank you so much. Real quick before we leave, how do we get more information about the Media Research Center?

[C]

Well, you can go to the mothership mrc.org my division, we focus on free speech and AI and big tech censorship. So we're mrcfreespeechamerica.org and then the news busters guys, they're part of MRC. They do the traditional broadcast media analysis.

[B]

Well, keep doing what you're doing. Dan. Thank you so much for your time. And it's Thursday, but I'm already thinking about the weekend. So have a good weekend.

[C]

Thanks, Jeff.

[B]

You bet. Thank you very much. Dan Schneider with Media Research Center. I'm Jeff Vaughn. Stay with us. This is the Josh Hammer Show.

[F]

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[C]

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[B]

Visit spinquest.com for more details. And welcome back to the Josh Hammer Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn filling in all this week. I understand Josh is going to Be back in the sad on Monday. Hope he's having a great few days off this week. So we talked about and just wrapped up a segment related to the LA mayoral race. I'm in Los Angeles. We know that that race has resonated across all of California. Also, a lot of people are looking at the California gubernatorial race. We're going to talk about that right now with one candidate that has really kind of surprisingly gone up so much in the polls. So we'll talk about that in just a second. But first let me get you the very latest. I checked just a few seconds ago to get the latest numbers here in California. And Republican Steve Hilton is leading the governor's race for California at 28%. Javier Becerra is at 25%. Tom Steyer is down a few points from that. So it appears at this point in time, because there is the top two candidates in California go to the November election and battle it out. It appears at this point in time that Steve Hilton and Javier Becerra most likely will carry over to the November election and we'll have a Republican versus a Democrat for California Governor. And you know, there's a lot of people here that are excited about that, a lot of people that want change, that see that Hilton can bring that change. A lot of people have that doom, however impending doom, that something's going to happen because this is a very, very deep blue state. California will vote for a Democrat no matter who that Democrat is. And we'll show you a little bit about and expose a little bit about Javier Becerra. And you know, he's one that's been ingrained in this Democratic machine in California for quite some time. And so I think that there's a thought that if there is two and one is Republican, well then the Democrat is going to win. So. And there are on top of that, there's days and days and days it's going to take to vote to get the votes counted rather, because there's still millions of votes out there that haven't been counted. California allows for those to be counted up to seven days after the election. I know it's crazy. Everybody else, Florida got theirs done in just seconds after the the polls closed. Here in California you are allowed to cure, you know, kind of suspect ballots. You are allowed to have your ballot mailed in. Every single registered voter, whether they like it or not, gets a mail in ballot. I have two registered voters in my household here in California and for some reason we get three ballots. So everybody gets a ballot regardless of if you show up and in person voting or what have you. So seven days after election Day, as long as that mail in ballot is postmarked on election Day or before will be counted. So we are probably a week away to really know exactly how this plays out. But to add a little bit more about the Democratic ticket here, when it came to governor, there was a number of candidates. Javier Becerra I mentioned, who's now in second place, Tom Steyer, very he's a billionaire, very liberal Democrat. You might remember Katie Porter. She was a congresswoman from Irvine and Orange County. She was famous for that, that video where she was screaming and yelling at her staff. That didn't do her so well. She has dropped out of the race. She ran for governor. Sheriff Chad Bianco, another Republican, also was running. I think he is currently in fourth place. Sheriff Chad Bianco had a very strong following. At one point in time we thought maybe two Republicans would be on the ticket here for governor in California. It doesn't appear that that's going to. But also Eric Swalwell is somebody. Congressman Eric Swalwell also was in the race, but you know what happened to him. He had a sex scandal, allegations of sexual abuse against staffers and women, whatnot. And so he dropped out of the race. And then it just seemed like all of a sudden Javier Becerra kind of went to the top. And we want to talk a bit more about this. Will Swaim is with the California Policy Center. He joins me now here in the Josh Hammer show to talk about Javier Becerra. And it's really interesting, Will, because I always do research for these interviews. I'll let you know. I sat in front of the computer and tried to find some Javier Becerra stuff that I could play here and there. I couldn't find much for somebody who's been in public office for so long. You know, maybe something in me was saying, has he been scrubbed somehow? Because I could hardly find anything. He's done a lot of unflattering stuff. I certainly couldn't find much of that. And I don't know, tell me that I'm wrong. Is that what you're seeing there at the California Policy Center?

[G]

Yeah, I think first, you know, thanks for having me. This is such a delight, even though we're early days here, as you just pointed out, in terms of counting ballots. You know, I would also point out that we haven't we have a full month before we actually certify the election results. You already talked about signature curing and all these other little wrinkles in California law that just make us among the absolute worst state for processing votes. But let's talk about Becerra, because he is just a phenomenon. This was a guy who, as you pointed out, he spent 12 terms in the House of Representatives and did nothing like literally. You are not crazy when you say you have looked for clips and social media stuff. His status is an empty suit. I think we want to really keep an eyeball on that because I think that's part of the feature, not a bug here in his candidacy. Let me explain that. The Democrats are hard pressed to account for their ownership of California. They have run the state as a super majority for the better part of 15 years. The last time we had a Republican statewide officer, it was a guy named Arnold Schwarzenegger. You and I remember him well. And while people complain that Steve Hilton has a foreign accent, boy, the Austrian accent is really something to hear. You know, a German, Austrian influenced. So we've had experience with foreign born candidates for governor and even successful ones. But the interesting thing About Visera is 12 terms, that's 24 years in the House of Representatives and then he is plucked from backbench obscurity. As I say, he did nothing of note while he was in the Congress. But Jerry Brown in 2017 plucks him from the back bench of the Congress to become the Attorney General for the state of California. Because Kamala Harris had just run, she had been the AG and she became a US senator in 2016. So Jerry Brown, the governor at the time, picks Brown, Javier Becerra to become the ag and he does worse than nothing. He takes zero action on warnings that the unemployment insurance system is vulnerable to fraud. He has been warned for years about this as the ag and this will come back to haunt him. I'll explain why in a moment. But boy, when Covid hits, he starts prosecuting conservative counties that he says are flouting state law with regard to social distancing and lockdowns. He goes after churches. His big claim to fame as the attorney general until 2021 is that he sued Trump more than any other state representative in the nation. He bragged about this all the time. 120 times he sued Donald Trump, but not once did he intervene to stop rioting in LA during the George Floyd summer. You know, rioting that actually, actually with our own eyeballs we saw violate, social distancing. Apparently the virus we used to joke at the time could not penetrate people's political outrage. They were invulnerable to Covid. So he did nothing to police up rioting during the summer of 2020, did nothing to stop campus protests that were really driven by anti Semitism at the time. Even this is before October 3rd. So he's, he's a do nothing guy, except when it comes to performative sorts of things, which is how California politicians specialize. It's always about theater and performance. So he is then, just like Kamala Harris, he is plucked from out of nowhere again, this time by Joe Biden, who wins the presidency in 2020. And Biden selects Javier to become head of Health and Human Services, where he does. Drum roll, please. Absolutely nothing, Jeff. Nothing. In fact, he is vilified by his fellow cabinet members as, quote, an idiot and, quote, stupid. A no show on Covid. The most the New York Times could say about him was that he had lost track of 85,000 children, migrant child migrants, as they call them, kids who were ushered across the southern border by Joe Biden's administration. And of course, the left went nuts, you know, losing track of these kids. How could you? Well, we had record, historic illegal immigration runs across the border. He lost track of 85,000 people. So he does nothing.

[C]

And he.

[G]

That makes him, I think, a really wonderful antidote to the problem of Democrats trying to explain why, why they have so badly mismanaged the state. If you ask any one of the Democratic candidates for governor, why, you know, why is California in such dire straits? You know, high homelessness, high price of insurance of homes, housing affordability, gas. We've got street crime. I could go on. They own this stuff, the high speed rail. They own all this. So what do they say? Donald Trump. And who's their candidate? The guy who sued Donald Trump 120 times.

[B]

Well, Will, let's put a pin in it right there. We're going to take a break, come back and continue the conversation with Will Swaim and the California Policy Center. We'll talk a lot more about the Democratic candidate for governor, Xavier Becerra, on the Josh Hammer Show. Stay with us.

[A]

Granger knows when you're a procurement manager for an office park, you're not managing one building, you're managing all of them. And to stay ahead, you need to see through walls and around corners. Lights about to fail, filters ready to clog. H Vac on its last leg. If you wait until something breaks, you're already behind. Count on Grainger for quality products, easy reordering and 24. 7 support. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click grainger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.

[B]

And welcome back to the Josh Hammer Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn filling in from Los Angeles. Before we get back to the topic of Javier Becerra, let's listen to Kevin McCarthy, former representative here in California, on just what's going on with the vote count here in California and how does

[E]

Florida count all their ballots in a couple hours? And we take weeks in California. It didn't used to be this way. We could know who won it in a day or two. And the governor went in and made sure everybody just gets mailed a ballot. And people move a lot. So you can live in a house and there'd be three other families that lived there in the last 10 years. They don't clean up the roles. So you get a lot of balance.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Yeah. With that in mind, let's bring back in Will Swain with the California Policy center to continue our conversation about Javier Becerra. He is, of course, a former HHS secretary under Biden. He was a former attorney general here in California. He is running as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, and he is one of two poised now to go to November. His challenger may very well be Republican Steve Hilton. So, Will, we've kind of established the uncertainty that we have here for the next few days as to who is going to actually win this and go on to November. But it's pretty sure that Javier Becerra is going to be we had that conversation about there's not much that we know about him. I think that it's, it's interesting to find out as we know more about him, we see that he's not necessarily very quick on his feet. He did an interview with a local media outlet here and he was imploring upon them that this needed to be a puff piece and it needed to be a profile piece and couldn't really be anything hard questions. And that kind of harkens back to Biden, who went into the basement, who wouldn't take questions. Kamala Harris as well, when she was running for president, wouldn't do any interviews. Do you think that that's the tack that he's going to take? 1 and 2, will that work in today's political climate?

[G]

Wow. I would defer to your judgment as quickly as I would my own on this one, but let's just say that Javier Becerra is not a charismatic figure. And you know, I said earlier, and I think you'll agree that is a feature for the Democrats, not a bug. Consider that a lot. You know, Tom Steyer who's who has become extraordinarily left wing as a bazillionaire. He actually paid for a report by an Israeli tech firm to try to find out like, how did Becerra jump immediately? Swalwell is driven out of the primary by very credible allegations of sexual, let's say inappropriate sexual behavior at the very least, and perhaps even, you know, claims of sexual assault in that vacuum suddenly launches Javier Becerra out of nowhere. Just weeks earlier, the Democratic Party had been telling Becerra and others, get out of the race. We are terrified of having two Republicans finish in the top two positions. And Becerra said, it's racism that you would not allow me to continue. It's only racism. It was the most passionate we've ever this man in his entire adult life. And what's been fascinating is Steyer's report that he paid for, that he commissioned, let's be fair, suggests that at least 3,000 bots had been set up by unknown entities to just amplify probacera anti Styer messages as soon as Swalwell dropped out. So somebody was dumping a bunch of cash into these social media influencers to try to drive up Becerra's positives, drive down Tom Steyer's reputation. And stiers ticked. You know, he spent 200 million. I think at this point, 200, 220. He rightfully thinks that he has purchased this office. It ought to be his. He's very offended that a no name like Javier Becerra. Javier Becerra is like the witness protection candidate for the Democrats. And again, I think they like this. To your point, I don't think he's going to be able to handle the media and the Democrats have, you know, the media, largely owned by the Democratic Party, owned, figuratively speaking, maybe not figuratively, have been very, very gentle on Democratic candidates in the past. But there's something that upsets them about Becerra. And you pointed out that, you know, one reporter sat down, started asking him questions and Becerra said, like, hey, easy, easy, you know, this isn't supposed to be a gotcha piece, is it? Like the man cannot handle even gentle questions. The most important one I think he's going to have to answer, Jeff, if I could just take a minute, is that he's now implicated in a scandal involving the theft of campaign funds, he calls it, from his own former campaign funds to a of a million dollars that went to pay his chief of staff in the Health and Human Services office. That's a guy who had been with Becerra for years here in California. And it was also helped. It was created, this entire theft of Becerra's campaign funds by Dana Williamson, who is Gavin Newsom's chief of staff. So you have a bunch of Democratic insiders moving cash to Becerra's chief of staff. Becerra says, gee, I knew nothing about it. That's also not a good answer. Now, Williamson, the former Newsom chief of staff, says, no, no, she was. She understood that Becerra had greenlit this entire movement of cash, which would be illegal, to give this money to somebody for this kind of a purpose. And his best response is, he didn't know. Becerra's best response is, I didn't know that $250,000 just was swept from my account. So the guy either can't watch his own business or he is lying flat out. And I, Hilton, or whomever runs against him in the general election, will make this issue front and center going forward. And Becerra has no good answers at present.

[B]

Well, to give our national audience some perspective about the numbers that you gave out there, there's about $350 million that was spent on this race for governor. 200 plus million, as you mentioned, is from billionaire Tom Steyer that just put money, his own money, into the campaign. And he was, of course, leading the money race. The number two in that money race was the anti stier campaign at $35 million, which eclipsed all the other candidates down the line, including the front runner, Steve Hilton. So talk a little bit about that $35 million that we know of was spent in a campaign. Could they then transfer and put that money towards a campaign, much like they did with anti Styre for anti Hilton?

[G]

Yeah, I think that's what a lot of people figure. And let's not be coy about this. A lot of this money is coming from the business world, the community in California, and especially, you know, as Steyer has complained, it's oil companies. Why would oil companies want to see Becerra win? It's not so much that oil companies, utilities, and other business interests, once they want Becerra to win, it's that Steyer represents a really existential threat to California and California business, to the economy. He is a disaster in the making. If he follows through on any of his pledges, he would double down on some of Gavin Newsom's worst policies. So that terrifies business people, and they suspect, rightly based on history, they suspect that no Republican, not Steve Hilton, not Chad Bianco, the sheriff, as you mentioned, could win in a general election in California where Democratic registration outnumbers Republican almost 2 to 1. It's pretty significant lead. So if you're a betting person in the business community and you don't want a guy like Steyer to win, you'd love to see a guy like Hilton win. He hasn't got much of a chance. They're betting to win in the general remains to be seen. So I think the safe money for them is. Let's go to Becerra, who is again a moderate, relatively speaking, on the Democratic left. He's a moderate Democratic lefty and he's a do nothing guy. He's at least not competent. You know, he's so incompetent by his own resume that he's unlikely to do anything really ambitious or aggressive. Very much like, as you mentioned it, Joe Biden in 2020. You know, people rallied around Biden not because he promised a sea change in politics, but because he was the safe alternative to people like Kamala Harris who are very progressive.

[B]

I think the danger there is that Becerra, being the empty suit and not really committed to anything, could be like a, could be like a Spam burger, could be like one of those people that it's a wolf in sheep's clothing and could be one of those people that is completely influenced by the very liberal left because we already know he's for open borders. We already know he's pro illegal immigration. He said so. And so that will continue. But I have a feeling somebody like that is not really in charge, that they're going to be influenced by somebody that will then have those ultra liberal skews go towards policy. And that will be, will be exactly where we were before or maybe even worse.

[G]

Well, this is the secret of the Joe Biden administration, right? That Biden was mostly the autopilot pilot with an auto pen. He really wasn't making a lot of the decisions we now know. It's very clear that his cabinet were much more important, his own staff much more important, that these were the people who really guided, and you'll pardon me, a really old and aging fast president. It was very much like Woodrow Wilson. These people were in charge. And the same logic holds, you're right, with Javier Becerra. He just doesn't really understand California policy. He spent most of his political career in Washington D.C. not here. Touched down briefly for that stint as Attorney General. So this is not a man who is familiar with policy. He can't stand, you know, he doesn't really understand what buttons he's pushing in the, in the governor's mansion. And so he's going to rely on a lot of insiders. And in the monoculture of California's politics that's likely to be extraordinarily left wing liberal sorts of people.

[B]

Well, will, let's leave it there. We want the audience, I know that they're itching for some more information. So to get to where you are, tell us how we can find out more about the California Policy center and your podcast.

[G]

Sure. Well, thanks for asking. California Policy Center. Just CaliforniaPolicyCenter.org, you can find us online. We're a free market think tank based here in California with offices all over the state. And I also do a podcast with my friend David Bonson. He's an investor, frequent Fox Business guest. And we do a show called Radio Free California. It's a podcast on the National Review platform. You can find it anywhere. Thanks for asking.

[B]

Stay with us. This is the Josh Hammer show.

[A]

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[B]

And welcome back to the Josh Hammer Show. I'm Jeff Vaughn filling in for Josh this week. He'll be back in the saddle on Monday. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm in Los Angeles. We're going to talk a bit more about LA politics and that race for mayor, which is still up in the air at this point in time. I know states like Florida, they have the ballot count just shortly after the polls close, but here in California, it's going to take a week or so. However, we have some breaking news related to the LA mayoral race and the gubernatorial race in California as well. President Trump has weighed in, slamming basically the process here in California, calling it a big cheat and saying that the U.S. attorney is investigating the ballots and the counting of the ballots here in LA county. And the news media is running with that, saying it's all unsubstantiated, there's no investigation. Well, we haven't heard from the U.S. attorney Bill Asali yet. We'll see. He is somebody that will just have a press conference at a moment's notice and he'll present that information. So we'll see if that happens. But related to President Trump calling it the big, big cheat, if you will, here in Los Angeles county in California for the, for the votes. It is a very difficult ballot counting to understand in the state of California. Basically, it takes them, you can have your ballot received seven days after election day, as long as it's postmarked on election day. And the other thing that I think I'm most concerned about and all my family and friends here in Los Angeles talk about is basically, why is everybody mailed a ballot? If you're not asking for a ballot, you get a ballot. In California, I think most places if you can't go to the polls, you might get the mail in ballot. But during COVID Governor Newsom expanded under emergency law because of COVID allowed him to. Every registered voter got a mail in ballot whether they wanted it or not. So now you have millions of ballots that go unused. And that kind of leads to the thought about could this be fraud? Because, you know, ballot harvesting and just finding ballots. There's been stories of ballots that have just been found in certain places, at certain homes because there's people registered to that address, but they don't live there. I have a good example. I have two registered voters in my household, me and my wife. If for some reason we get three mail in ballots, so President Trump is saying the big cheat and the media here is freaking out and saying that that's, you know, untrue. But you got to understand how the system is. So there's a lot of uncertainty going into the count, especially when it's such an important election. I'll give you the latest numbers for LA mayor. Incumbent mayor Karen Bass is at 35% right now. The challenger Spencer Pratt is at 30%. It looks like those two are going to go on until November. That's how that works here in California. If the, if one candidate doesn't get 50% plus one vote, then it carries over to the general election, which will be November 3rd this year and they will have the then second challenger. And so that's going to be probably my bet. Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt. Let's go to some video of Spencer Pratt and some interactions he's having with, with some voters here in Los Angeles. Yeah, go ahead. 98.

[C]

Good luck. Praying for you.

[B]

That says a lot, doesn't it? Somebody who has lived in Los Angeles is 98 years old has seen the city at its best and the city at its worst. And he is voting for an outlier, a non politician, a TV reality star that has resonated with so many people in Spencer Pratt. And I gotta tell you, that's not a one off. That's not somebody that they just sought out and then did a little, you know, cameo and got a little video to put out on social media. My friends, family, neighbors, they're all saying the same thing, that LA needs change. I don't know if we're gonna get it. And we're talking about Karen Bass, who was in Ghana when the, when the city was burning down with LA fires and has mismanaged homelessness in this city, has spent billions of dollars on homelessness and there's still a problem and she's probably going to be reelected. So there's this real kind of impending doom that we're going to get almost to the point where we can have change, but then the rug is going to be pulled out from under us because of the democratic machine and the way that the VOT are being counted and the way that they can be cured. And that's a real deal for the national audience here. You do know that takes a long time in California and that with all the mail in ballots out there, it just, it leads to the speculation that something, something's going on that at the last minute they're going to pull out some sort of victory. 1.4 million votes in LA county have already been processed. There's 713,000 outstanding. So I think there is a vote count dump twice a day. We'll have another one around 4 o' clock this afternoon and we'll see those numbers kind of trickle up just a little bit, but it's going to take a while and that really is not good for democracy, right? To have to wait so long. I mean, it's just the way that the Democrats want to operate. They want to control every single thing. So we'll wait and see how that goes. And I want to bring this up. I was watching election coverage on NBC News. This was on election night on Tuesday night. And I was, I was watching the national broadcast and, and they had a number of people, they had panelists and they were giving. Kornacki was at the board and he does a really good job. And they were really drilling down on the lake race for mayor and they featured the top three candidates. Karen Bass, Nithya Rahman, who's a city councilwoman, who's a democratic socialist. Karen Bass is a Democratic socialist as well. And then Spencer Pratt, who is a Republican conservative white man. So take a look at the photo that they chose to use to show the three candidates for LA mayor. I mean, take a look at that. Is that not editorializing right there? Is that not showing bias towards the one male conservative candidate? I mean, Bass and Rahman look like they're ready for a Vogue cover, right? They're smiling, they're engaging. I mean, for those people that just watch, you would think, oh, I'm going to vote for somebody who's happy. And the person that looks like he just got bad news from his accountant, he seems angry. You know, they did that on purpose. And I've worked in newsrooms, and I know that this goes on. And I will tell you that the anchors and the contributors there during the live broadcast knew nothing of this. I've been on air many, many times, and the graphic pops up, and it's a surprise to me. That is decided by management. And that's what has changed in broadcast lately, is that management is the one pulling the strings. A lot of people think reporters are, the journalists are, the anchors are, and to some degree they are. But the biggest pull is coming from management. So, you know, somebody there in New York City at the NBC News headquarters said, I want the two best pictures you can find of Bass and of Ramen. The third picture, that's that white guy who's a Republican. He's maga. Make him look like he's constipated. Seriously, how do you explain that? That's not a coincidence. And it happens over and over and over again. They will look for the unflattering photo of the person that they want to villainize because they don't agree with politics. How petty is that? Pretty petty. And it's on display at NBC News and all across mainstream media. Well, I'm Jeff Vaughn filling in for Josh Hammer. It is a Thursday. We'll be back on Friday for my final show as I fill in all this week for Josh. Certainly happy to do so and hope he's having a great vacation. Josh will be back in the seat here on Monday. It has been a pleasure. I look forward to tomorrow's broadcast as well. So stay with us. This is the Josh Hammer show on Newsweek and the Salem News Channel. I'm Jeff Vaughn from Los Angeles. We'll see you tomorrow.