Steve Hilton On Last Night's Debate

The John Phillips Show

The episode features an interview with Republican California gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton, focusing on his critique of opponent Bece

Key takeaways

• Steve Hilton criticizes Becerra for focusing excessively on Donald Trump during the gubernatorial debate rather than state issues.
• Hilton's campaign strategy aims to appeal to Democrats by promoting 'balance' in California government.

Main topics

• California Gubernatorial Election
• Political Debate Analysis

Notable quotes

He is relying on a voter registration advantage to win this election, and he thinks that's good enough.

Conclusion

The episode serves as a blend of political commentary and local news,

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) Giving you the day's headlines with the right context. Speaker 3 (0:06) It's the John Phillips Show. Speaker 3 (0:09) And we continue at 2.05 in the afternoon on The John Phillips Show, live from Chicago. Mr. Randy Wings in Culver City. Speaker 8 (0:17) Johnny, we're broadcasting live on the radio, 790 KABC in Southern California, 810 KSFO in the Bay Area, and we're broadcasting live worldwide in johnnydontlike.com. That's where you can get to the YouTube channel, the ultimate way to experience this show. Not only do you get to see us in whatever cool shirt I'm wearing, not only do you get to make fun of Johnny's haircut, you also get to play around in the chat room and react to all the stories of the day along with us at johnnydontlike.com. Get off the iHearts, get off the AMs, and get on the YouTubes. High-quality show here, johnnydontlike.com. Speaker 3 (0:51) It is our pleasure to welcome our next guest to the program. He is the Republican candidate for governor in the state of California. You can follow him on X at SteveHiltonX and find him online at goldentogether.com. Steve Hilton, welcome. Hey, how you doing? Good. And I'll tell you, you had a great night last night at the one and only debate in the general election for governor here in California. I thought you turned in an A-plus performance. Speaker 2 (1:20) Well, thank you, John. You know, it's so funny you do these things. And I don't know, I felt like, I mean, there's probably 15 other things that I wanted to say. you know, points I wanted to make. And I could have like really taken them apart in lots of different other ways. But, you know, you only got an hour and that's the way it goes. And you don't control the questions. But I'm certainly getting good feedback. And what I do think is he was just such a joke the way I mean, as predicted, as we all predicted, literally all he's got is going on and on about Trump. I mean, it's just it's actually embarrassing the number of times he said, I think someone counted up. Is it 37 times? Something like that. That's Speaker 8 (2:03) all he's got. If you played the drinking game with that, you'd be in the hospital. Speaker 2 (2:09) Exactly. We should have done it. There definitely were a couple of people at our watch party who I think were doing that, because by the time I got there, there was a lot, you know, there was a it was a very jovial event. Let's put it that way. A lot of fun had by all. I'll tell you, because Speaker 3 (2:25) Becerra brought Trump up so much, including in places where you can't even make the argument that it's relevant. What he did was disrespectful for the voters of California because he denied us a conversation about the problems facing the state and the solutions that he claims to offer. And I came away with two points after watching his performance last night. One is he has no charisma. And two is he has no ideas. He is relying on a voter registration advantage to win this election, and he thinks that's good enough, and that's the strategy in a nutshell. Speaker 2 (3:09) Yes, and it's totally disrespect. I completely agree. And it's disrespectful in so many ways because it's just so obviously taking everybody for granted. And it's so obviously just saying in this kind of smug, contemptuous way, yeah, whatever. I don't have to earn your vote. I don't have to give solutions. I don't have to do anything because you're going to vote for me anyway because I'm a D. And I just think that actually, honestly, we've got a lot planned for the next few weeks, the last month of this campaign. And I don't know. I mean, I feel very, very optimistic that we really can pull this off, even though nobody thinks that. I understand that. But I just think he's making a massive miscalculation by treating people with such contempt. Speaker 3 (4:01) You and I talked about the moderators of this debate before the debate happened. I told you I thought it was a massive mistake for CNN to use Jake Tapper and Dana Bash instead of Alex Michelson, who actually understands California issues. And our concerns, I think, were found to be correct. They came in wanting to talk about national issues because that's what they do on their talk shows. Whereas Alex could have talked about California subjects and provided pushbacks when he went off topic. Speaker 2 (4:33) That's right. That's exactly right. And I think that it just and look, on the one hand, they didn't, you know, micromanage it like some of the primary debates we had where some of them, the moderators were talking almost more than the candidates. But in a way, it was just as bad in the other direction where they just let him. ramble on about these things that are completely irrelevant and I think Alex would have said yeah but come on that's not how it works or come on that's not the federal government's responsibility whatever I think that Alex would have done that and you know to me as well if I went off topic but the point is that exactly as you say he really knows his stuff and I agree with that Speaker 3 (5:17) One of the reactions I saw on social media among Democrats, Democratic strategists, Democratic talking heads, was that Becerra was unimpressive, but it's good enough to win. And oh, my God, we don't know what kind of governor he's going to be like. It seems like there has to be a conversation between you and those types of voters here. who understand they may be partisan, they may hate Donald Trump, they may be dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, but they understand what's in front of their eyes. They understand what they heard last night. There's got to be a way to communicate with those people, to give them a pass to vote for you so they know they can still be dyed-in-the-wool Democrats, they can still hate Donald Trump, but you don't have to push the state off the cliff to prove it. Speaker 2 (6:10) Exactly. That's exactly the heart of our closing message in many ways. I mean, we're launching a campaign today. We'll just try it. Just try it. You know, just try for four years, you know, something a bit of balance. And I say that the whole time. You know, you're still going to have most likely a Democrat supermajority in the legislature. You're still going to have Democrats most likely running all the big cities and all the big counties. Just try a bit of balance. And I always say, put it this way. So you don't. have to change your party. You don't have to change your politics. You just have to vote for change in this election. And that's going to be absolutely the heart of the message in this closing period of the campaign. Speaker 3 (6:51) As someone who debated not just Chad Bianco, your Republican opponent in the primary, but all of the other Democrats, you got to know these people over the many months that you campaigned with them, against them, and participated in forums with them. How do you think they would assess Becerra's performance last night? Speaker 2 (7:11) Oh, they would have been. I mean, I know, to be honest, I've heard from a couple of them. They're just, they can't believe that their party has ended up with this guy. Of all the people, you know, the most... I mean, no one's got a good word for him. No one. I mean, yesterday, the California Post, or was it Monday? No, Monday, I think it was, published a piece. We get more quotes from people who worked with Becerra in the federal government and in California just saying, this guy can't run anything. He's not fit to be governor. He's not fit to be the boss of anything. That's a direct quote. Speaker 2 (7:54) They actually are stunned that this is the guy they've ended up with. He's probably the worst of all of them. I mean, each of the others, you could say, you know, they had ideas or they had charisma or they had something. But he's just nothing. The number one phrase you hear about him, this is not from this room, everyone you meet, business people. People who've been in and around government for the years in California who've dealt with him say he's an, this is the phrase, empty suit. That's what you hear all the time. He's just an empty suit. One of the things that I tell people. Can I just make a point on that, John? Very important. Sorry, I had to cut you off. That's not neutral. Okay, that's dangerous. Because if you have, some people might hear the term empty suit and say, well, that's not as bad as a hard left. the SA type person. Well, in the context of California, it is actually very dangerous because if you put an empty suit in Sacramento with the current makeup of the legislature there, they are just going to roll over him and it's going to be crazy, craziness and cost and all the nonsense without any kind of check at all. I mean, look, Jerry Brown pushed back some on the legislature. Gavin Newsom, hardly at all, but once or twice, you know, he just vetoed that bill on ICE agents, for example. You know, a little bit of pushback from you. But Becerra, you'd have nothing. He just would do nothing. And that actually makes him very dangerous. I believe if he Speaker 3 (9:34) were to be elected as governor, he would not be the one calling the shots. There would be some Dana Williamson. The unions would be in the power seat. And I think that. Democratic voters, by and large, are comfortable with that because the partisan pull is so strong. I think they'd prefer to have a stronger candidate. But this is how I respond to them when this subject comes up. What are you going to do if there's the big one? What are you going to do if there's a massive earthquake on the San Andreas Fault or, God forbid, we have some kind of natural disaster where you need competent leadership to make sure you and your family don't die and you have an empty suit that's calling the shots in Sacramento? What we'd end up with is a Kathleen Blanco in Louisiana when Hurricane Katrina hit. And her incompetence had real-world consequences that caused people to lose their property, their lives, and everything. Speaker 2 (10:34) Yes, exactly right. And that's one of the themes from this story about Bastera in the California Post the other day, when they talked to a lot of people who work with him, that he's just completely, you know, doesn't make decisions, hopeless, just completely controlled by the people around