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- [00:01]
Podcast Host
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- [00:32]
Host or Interviewer
About the response from the officials in the Trump regime and how they've reacted to Signal Gate and all of these other failures. As we've seen once again, the week concluding with the stock market tanking, people's lives savings are being crushed, as we see in cities across the country, Social Security offices being closed, essential federal services being gutted. And then there's that. This image, though, of all of the people Trump surrounds himself, whether it's maga, Mike Johnson in the House or his Cabinet. It has this Kim Jong Un like feel. And they do the clapping for him and they clearly know what's going on is wrong and they're just not doing anything about it. So I remember that there was a clip from a congressional hearing in 2019 that was prophetic, that summed it up in connection with the initial impeachment hearing. And I found that clip and I have to share it with you now. Let's play it.
- [01:34]
Karen Bass
I do have to say, though, that I have empathy for my Republican colleagues because I don't believe that they have a choice. They have to defend the president, and they dare not step out of line because if they do, they will suffer the consequences. A few of my Republican colleagues earlier did try to say that they didn't believe that the president's conduct was appropriate and they got slapped quickly. The president said his conduct, he said the call was absolutely perfect. And so now you don't hear any of them saying or questioning whether his behavior was appropriate. You have to fall in line. And not only do you have to fall in line, you have to praise him constantly. Like those famous press conferences we've seen in the Oval Office where they, one by one, go around the table and talk about their praise for him. It makes me feel like a meeting that would take place in North Korea.
- [02:30]
Host or Interviewer
A meeting that would take place in North Korea that was then Congresswoman Karen Bass, now Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, and have her as a guest on the Midas Touch podcast. Mayor, welcome. And I don't know if you Remember that clip? But it was kind of spot on as you reflect on that clip to the moment. What are you thinking?
- [02:52]
Karen Bass
I really think that the White House is in control of the government. And that's not a question this time around. I think you see in the House of Representatives and in the Senate, when the president weighs in on something, they deliver exactly what he wants. And so I think when you look at our government now, it's a little different than it was before. It was more chaotic in a different kind of way. It was clearly people who were in the White House who didn't have the experience. But I think that the people that are around the president now have the experience studied and prepared for this over the years, and they have an agenda and they are driving that agenda.
- [03:35]
Host or Interviewer
So I guess you can say the first administration, it was like a virus fighting the antibodies and it was chaos. And what was going to happen now there's no antibodies and it's just a virus and it's just doing what it wants to do. And it's a wrecking ball, though. And what Doge is doing in cities like Los Angeles, and I had the mayor of Cleveland on recently, and we've been speaking with a lot of mayors, and these are mayors like you have been doing great work for the city. And now it's like you're, you're going against this Doge kind of riptide that's trying to pull all of the work apart. What are you seeing with the Doge wrecking ball in Los Angeles and how are you dealing with that right now?
- [04:18]
Karen Bass
Well, and I'm really glad you brought that up because I think that one impact of Doge that people don't seem to be clued in with right now, when you see massive layoffs in federal agencies, well, those federal workers don't all work in Washington, D.C. they work in Los Angeles, too. We have over 50,000 federal workers in Washington, D.C. and so, I mean, I'm sorry, in Los Angeles. And so we're already, our economy is already hit, which is why we have a big deficit in the city. But that is going to be an impact that we are not feeling today. But mark my words, we will be feeling it in coming weeks. One thing that's happening with the layoffs is that one day you're laid off, two days later the court says you're not. And it's been kind of back and forth. And that's about what I was describing before, that sense of instability. I don't know the worth. The earth is moving. Do I have a job. Don't I have a job? Does my agency even exist? And then to hear Secretary Kennedy, Secretary of Health and Human Services, say that he's going to. I think he said he was going to reduce the workforce by 10,000 people. So those layoffs will absolutely hit us in our local economy right here.
- [05:35]
Host or Interviewer
What's going on and how are you dealing with what ICE is doing and what, you know, what the Trump regime is doing with Alien Enemies act and these renditions? And, you know, we've, you know, we've seen Kristi Noem, you know, pose in front of an El Salvador concentration camp, which by the way, in my view is a violation of the Geneva Conventions to do a photo of yourself as a pose in front of something like that in and of itself. But this idea, we're hearing lots of stories from ACLU lawyers and others of some people being people who are here lawfully asylum. Asylum seekers doing the process the right way, who basically work, were kidnapped and then end up in El Salvador never to be heard from again. Everybody wants to get the bad guys off the street, but how do you deal with due process? And how do you. How do you protect the population from what's going on?
- [06:38]
Karen Bass
Right. That is very, very, very frightening. I saw the professor that was snatched off the street, I believe, professor back east just a couple of days ago. That then creates a climate of fear. But that fear, I mean, that is targeting people who protested on college campuses. But the general sense of fear of what people remember from the first Trump administration is alive and well in Los Angeles. I remember in the first Trump administration where kids wouldn't go to school because they were afraid of their parents not coming home. We haven't reached that point yet. But there is an absolute sense of fear. But let me just tell you how it's gonna hit us. We have not had massive ICE raids or anything like that in the city. ICE has been here. It's been very targeted in the sense that they were going after federal fugitives or people who had outstanding federal warrants for violent crimes. So it's been very targeted. But that chill that it sends through the is palpable. But let me tell you how it's going to impact us if that should happen. We need to get the Palisades rebuilt. You're talking about a large percentage of construction workers who are immigrants. Now, I'm not saying they're all undocumented, but what is happening now is that even people who have documents, green cards, et cetera, they're going to be fearful of being picked up by ice. So we're trying to focus on, and I'm trying to focus on rebuilding the Palisades at lightning speed. And so far it's been going with lightning speed. I want that to continue. But if the workforce is too afraid to go to work, you're going to have a negative impact in the Palisades, in Altadena, in Malibu and in all of the areas that are affected. We're going to have a difficult time rebuilding our region.
- [08:35]
Host or Interviewer
And Mayor, what's the latest with the federal funds for rehabbing after the fire? What's going on there? What is that an issue for the upcoming budget discussions? What's, what's the latest on that?
- [08:50]
Karen Bass
Well, let me, I have to tell you, our phase one and phase two really has gone. And that is what has been lightning speed. And I got to tell you, it's been lightning speed because of the administration. I think that the Trump administration wants to break the record for rebuilding as fast as possible. And so we have been flooded with staff from FEMA and the Army, Army Corps of Engineers. And so that is going along fine. We're getting ready to enter into the next phase where the individual homeowners will start rebuilding. And we've been issuing permits and expediting all of that. It absolutely impacts our budget. Let me just tell you the economic hit to our economy from the destruction of the Palisades. And you know, the Palisades is the only area that is in the city of Los Angeles. Altadena, Malibu, those are outside of my jurisdiction. It is a $38 million hit to our budget that one neighborhood and that is from a loss of property tax and business tax. So it absolutely has an economic impact. And then we have to front the money for the rebuilding and then get the money back from fema. So, you know, that presents certain insecurity. But our budget problems are not solely because of the fire. They are impacted by the fires. But the main reason why we're struggling in our budget is because of the economic, the general economic downturn. And cities across our state are experiencing this as well. The other things that cities are experiencing across the country is an increase in liability lawsuits. So for example, a big city like Los Angeles, we're self insured and we put aside $100 million every year for lawsuits, trip and falls, you know, those type things. Well, because of COVID and the backlog in the court system, we had triple the amount of lawsuits. So instead of 100 million, we had $300 million that we needed to pay out for lawsuits, and then we gave our workforce raises so we could retain them because you know how expensive it is to live in Los Angeles. So those three issues impacted our budget and we have a huge deficit. So obviously, dealing with the state's worst disaster in its history has compounded the problems we were already facing.
- [11:20]
Host or Interviewer
Mayor, finally, what do you say to the people in LA and other cities as well? But obviously you're the mayor of LA who are just, they're worried. Every day they wake up, it's chaos. There's another bad headline. There's economic horrible news. There's a lot to process. So what do you say to people who just wake up just feeling panicked? And what do we do?
- [11:44]
Karen Bass
Well, you know, we have got to turn that around. So let me just tell you what we're doing, because we're preparing in a little over a year to welcome the world here. We're going to have the World Cup. Eight games will be played here, but the World cup will last for 40 days. So one of the things that we're trying to do is to really recreate that spirit we have had around the Dodgers when we won the World Series. So at the end of April, we're going to kick off a number of citywide events that help to prepare our city for the world. And we are talking about when the games come, this is going to be an economic uplift to the region. And so getting everybody involved in preparing the city. This was something we had planned to start in January, but obviously we couldn't. And so we're launching it in April. I have to give my State of the city speech around April 20th. I have to present the budget to the city. And then we're gonna launch this citywide activity to really try to lift people's spirit. And I think the best way, when people are feeling down and lost in the sense that they can't control what's happening in Washington, D.C. you can't control what's happening in the national economy to get them involved in some real positive activity, something physical in a way they can contribute and feel that collective spirit. So that's what our response is.
- [13:08]
Host or Interviewer
Mayor Karen Bass, thanks for joining us as always.
- [13:12]
Karen Bass
Thanks for having me on, and I appreciate that clip.
- [13:15]
Host or Interviewer
There you go. I got my Karen Bass clips all around. Everybody hit. Subscribe. Let's get to 5 million subscribers. Thanks for watching. Can't get enough Midas. Check out the Midas substack for ad Free articles, reports, podcasts, daily recaps from Ron Filipkowski and more. Sign up for free now@midasplus.com.
- [13:44]
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