Joe Rogan Experience #2542 - Steve Hilton

1. 0:00 – 0:02

   Intro

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      [upbeat music]

2. 0:02 – 4:12

   Hawaii beach meeting, early podcast days, and how the show changed

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:02

      Joe Rogan Podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan Podcast by night. All day. [upbeat music]

   2. SHSteve Hilton0:13

      Come on then, what's going on?

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      [laughs] For people who don't know, you and I have been friends for, God, more than 10 years.

   4. SHSteve Hilton0:22

      Yeah.

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:22

      How many years it's been?

   6. SHSteve Hilton0:23

      I think it's-

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:24

      14 years?

   8. SHSteve Hilton0:24

      I think it's the year we got here, which is '14, 2012-

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:27

      Yeah

   10. SHSteve Hilton0:28

       ... when we moved from England.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       We met in Hawaii on the beach-

   12. SHSteve Hilton0:30

       I know

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:30

       ... with our kids. [laughs]

   14. SHSteve Hilton0:31

       Okay. So what's your memory? I was just thinking about that, 'cause I have a very particular memory of that.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:35

       Um, my memory was-

   16. SHSteve Hilton0:37

       Meeting

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:37

       ... uh, that my children and your children were playing on the beach.

   18. SHSteve Hilton0:41

       Exactly.

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:42

       That's how we met.

   20. SHSteve Hilton0:42

       Mm-hmm.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:43

       It was just they were, like, digging in sand. They were real little.

   22. SHSteve Hilton0:46

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:46

       They were the same age. And, uh, then we just said hi.

   24. SHSteve Hilton0:51

       Yeah. But I remember th- okay, I have a slightly different memory.

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:54

       Okay. What's your-

   26. SHSteve Hilton0:54

       Which is like y- that's exactly right about the kids.

   27. JRJoe Rogan0:57

       Yeah.

   28. SHSteve Hilton0:58

       Two girls for you, two boys for me. And your wife was there first, before-

   29. JRJoe Rogan1:03

       Yes

   30. SHSteve Hilton1:03

       ... and-
3. 4:12 – 6:29

   Not caring about online outrage: bad-faith takes, harassment, and digital discipline

   1. JRJoe Rogan4:12

      Yeah, nobody was listening back then. It was nice. [laughs]

   2. SHSteve Hilton4:15

      [laughs]

   3. JRJoe Rogan4:16

      You could get away with so much more. You could just talk and not worry about it. And also social media was not as big of a-

   4. SHSteve Hilton4:23

      Well, I don't think much has changed. I don't think you worry about it when you're talking.

   5. JRJoe Rogan4:25

      No. Well, I don't pay attention.

   6. SHSteve Hilton4:27

      Yeah.

   7. JRJoe Rogan4:27

      That's the key.

   8. SHSteve Hilton4:28

      Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan4:28

      That's the key to my success.

   10. SHSteve Hilton4:29

       Right.

   11. JRJoe Rogan4:29

       Is I don't listen to anybody, what anybody has to say about you. Just keep moving.

   12. SHSteve Hilton4:35

       Yeah.

   13. JRJoe Rogan4:35

       Keep moving and don't pay attention.

   14. SHSteve Hilton4:37

       I think that's obviously works.

   15. JRJoe Rogan4:39

       Well, I think there's a lot of people out there that are crippled by other people's opinions. I think there's a genuine benefit to having a bunch of other people's opinions of you, and-

   16. SHSteve Hilton4:49

       Mm-hmm

   17. JRJoe Rogan4:50

       ... you get to see feedback, but there's just way too many bad faith actors on the internet. There's way too many people that have the least charitable takes on everybody.

   18. SHSteve Hilton5:00

       Mm-hmm.

   19. JRJoe Rogan5:00

       The worst, the worst, like, public narration, like, public narratives th- th- that they, they want to promote about anyone or anything, about any-

   20. SHSteve Hilton5:13

       Yeah

   21. JRJoe Rogan5:13

       ... subject. There's far too many people like that, and it's a poisoned well.

   22. SHSteve Hilton5:18

       Yeah.

   23. JRJoe Rogan5:18

       It's like if you went to a restaurant and you knew that 20% of their food would literally fucking kill you-

   24. SHSteve Hilton5:25

       Right

   25. JRJoe Rogan5:25

       ... would you ever eat there? No. Well, that's like Twitter.

   26. SHSteve Hilton5:29

       Yeah.

   27. JRJoe Rogan5:29

       T- t- 20% of the people there are fucking poisonous. They're, they're like a coral snake. [laughs]

   28. SHSteve Hilton5:35

       I know, but it, it's so funny 'cause, like, now it's, I've just, you know, been... So when we met I was just, you know, like, kind of a, a regular citizen, teaching at Stanford, whatever. Then I started a business, then I got more public. I went to Fox, hosted a show there. Now I'm a candidate. And as that's happened, you get more prominent, and so you look at these comments, and I never know whether to look, but the, the thing that I really just makes me laugh now Well, [laughs] it's like I'm always tempted to do it, and I never do it. Like, the really idiotic, just pure abuse. Like g- I don't know, like I do... I put something out there, and now there's a lot more of this on my account. It's like, "Go back to England, you fucking cunt." [laughs]

   29. JRJoe Rogan6:18

       [laughs]

   30. SHSteve Hilton6:18

       "Or you bald whatever." And like, I always, I always wanna write, "Good point." [laughs]
4. 6:29 – 11:07

   Bots, influence campaigns, and “Twitter as a poisoned well”

   1. JRJoe Rogan6:29

      Well, there's a lot of sad-

   2. SHSteve Hilton6:30

      'Cause it just makes me laugh

   3. JRJoe Rogan6:32

      ... there's a lot of sad, angry people out there that are just lashing out, and unfortunately, those are overly represented online because those are the type of people that have the time to make comments. But then you also have to take into consideration, whenever you're involved in anything political, as you obviously are 'cause you're running for governor of California, there's a lot of the people that are engaging with your content that are not real people. They are either-

   4. SHSteve Hilton6:54

      Oh, you mean actual bots?

   5. JRJoe Rogan6:55

      100%.

   6. SHSteve Hilton6:56

      Okay, that part I never have in my mind. That's-

   7. JRJoe Rogan6:59

      You don't?

   8. SHSteve Hilton7:00

      No, I should. I n- but I, I... It's a good point. Keep going. Yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan7:03

      Oh, it's a tremendous amount. It's not a small amount.

   10. SHSteve Hilton7:07

       Right.

   11. JRJoe Rogan7:07

       It's a huge amount.

   12. SHSteve Hilton7:09

       Does Elon-

   13. JRJoe Rogan7:10

       There's nothing you can do about it

   14. SHSteve Hilton7:11

       ... get... Uh, well, isn't he-

   15. JRJoe Rogan7:11

       It was a point of contention when he was buying Twitter.

   16. SHSteve Hilton7:14

       Mm-hmm.

   17. JRJoe Rogan7:14

       So when he was buying Twitter, Twitter was alleging that there was only 5%.

   18. SHSteve Hilton7:18

       Mm-hmm.

   19. JRJoe Rogan7:18

       5% of Twitter was bots. But, see if you can find that article again. There's a, a former FBI, um, God, he, he wor- he did something with digital intelligence.

   20. SHSteve Hilton7:29

       Mm-hmm.

   21. JRJoe Rogan7:29

       And he did a forensic analysis of Twitter, and he said it's probably 80%.

   22. SHSteve Hilton7:34

       80?

   23. JRJoe Rogan7:35

       80.

   24. SHSteve Hilton7:35

       Jeez.

   25. JRJoe Rogan7:36

       Eight zero. So it's a bunch of bots yelling at you. And by bots... Okay, some of them I think now, and this is at the time, so this is 2022. What, when did he buy Twitter? 2023? 2024? 2024?

   26. SHSteve Hilton7:52

       I think older than... Was it two-

   27. JRJoe Rogan7:53

       Was it '24?

   28. SHSteve Hilton7:54

       I can't remember. I think it was, like-

   29. SPSpeaker7:56

       Somewhere around '23, '24, yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan7:57

       Yeah, okay. So back then-
5. 11:07 – 17:25

   Instagram vs. TikTok addiction mechanics—and China’s different playbook

   1. SHSteve Hilton11:07

      No, I j- I mean, I look at it, um, sort of... 'Cause, you know, yeah, you're running around, you're doing all these things for the campaign, whatever, so I don't have too much time. It's the one I look at, but there's all the other... You know, there's Instagram and all the rest, and I don't even look at those.

   2. JRJoe Rogan11:20

      Yeah.

   3. SHSteve Hilton11:20

      But, but on X, you know, for a few hours, you know, if you add it up, probably half an hour in the morning, maybe half an hour in the middle of the day-

   4. JRJoe Rogan11:28

      Yeah

   5. SHSteve Hilton11:28

      ... half an hour at the end of the day, and you look at it then, and you just find out what's going... I think it's pretty good for news.

   6. JRJoe Rogan11:33

      It's very good for news.

   7. SHSteve Hilton11:33

      Like, things that are happening.

   8. JRJoe Rogan11:35

      It's the best thing in the world for news.

   9. SHSteve Hilton11:37

      Like it's live, you know? So I, that's why I check in with it.

   10. JRJoe Rogan11:39

       Yeah.

   11. SHSteve Hilton11:39

       You kind of see what's happening.

   12. JRJoe Rogan11:40

       I do that. I go to the front page, like what's going on?

   13. SHSteve Hilton11:43

       Mm-hmm.

   14. JRJoe Rogan11:43

       What are, what are the, what are the news stories?

   15. SHSteve Hilton11:45

       Yeah.

   16. JRJoe Rogan11:45

       But as soon as it gets to people's opinions on something, you're like, "Blah, blah, blah. Not listening."

   17. SHSteve Hilton11:49

       [laughs] Yeah. I do think it's fun. Honestly, the abuse stuff, it just makes me laugh. I think it's so kind of-

   18. JRJoe Rogan11:54

       Does it?

   19. SHSteve Hilton11:54

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan11:54

       That's good. Well, you've always been really good digitally. Like, uh, for people that don't know Like I said, Steve and I have known each other for a long time. Uh, I mean, we're, we're good friends. Like, we've taken our families to Disneyland.

   21. SHSteve Hilton12:07

       Actual friends. I hear you.

   22. JRJoe Rogan12:07

       Yeah, like we've slept over each other's homes. This is, again, way before you were running for governor. We... I know you, and you know me, and you know my family. We know each other, and you've always had no phone. You were always impossible to reach. I used to have to get ahold of your wife to get ahold of you.

   23. SHSteve Hilton12:22

       [laughs] Exactly.

   24. JRJoe Rogan12:23

       It was hilarious. For a while, I don't even know if you've had a fucking email for a while. Like-

   25. SHSteve Hilton12:26

       I'd have email. I always had email.

   26. JRJoe Rogan12:28

       Yeah, you... But you never had anything on you to check that email, so like-

   27. SHSteve Hilton12:33

       Exactly. That's right

   28. JRJoe Rogan12:34

       ... I remember that one time in San Diego where you-

   29. SHSteve Hilton12:36

       Oh, don't. Don't. I always said, "It's fine. Nothing ever goes wrong. Are you gonna now?" [laughs]

   30. JRJoe Rogan12:40

       No, no, one time it went wrong. Your wife was so mad at you 'cause she couldn't get ahold of you. You fucking vanished. [laughs] But this was... The thing is, like, you were well aware that it is a toxic element in your life, and it's distracting. It keeps you from being present. It keeps you from being in the moment, and it's very hard to have discipline and just put it down. And I'm really good at it, but then I'm not.
6. 17:25 – 23:43

   Meta lawsuits, regulating product design, and algorithm-free social media ideas

   1. SHSteve Hilton17:25

      Well, that's what I think all about all of this is so hard. Like, even when you look at... Like, just today, there's the, um, this massive trial, this Meta trial going on.

   2. JRJoe Rogan17:35

      What's going on?

   3. SHSteve Hilton17:36

      Meta. Their... It's a lawsuit. Today's the first day of the trial.

   4. JRJoe Rogan17:39

      What is the trial about?

   5. SHSteve Hilton17:40

      They're, they're suing Meta for $1.4 trillion.

   6. JRJoe Rogan17:43

      Trillion?

   7. SHSteve Hilton17:43

      Trillion. Trillion with a T.

   8. JRJoe Rogan17:45

      Whoa.

   9. SHSteve Hilton17:45

      I mean, they're not gonna get that, but that's the claim. It was just today.

   10. JRJoe Rogan17:50

       Claims it addicted children to social media.

   11. SHSteve Hilton17:52

       Yeah.

   12. JRJoe Rogan17:52

       Huh.

   13. SHSteve Hilton17:53

       And they're doing this through lawsuits, and the... And I'm just so torn over this 'cause I've got a very strong point of view about all of this and kids.

   14. JRJoe Rogan18:01

       Yes.

   15. SHSteve Hilton18:02

       But there's something about this t- doesn't feel Right, in terms of just going after these big platforms. 'Cause in the end, I think it's the phones. It's the... The, there'll be something else if it's not Meta, it'll be another thing.

   16. JRJoe Rogan18:16

       Yes.

   17. SHSteve Hilton18:17

       I mean, I wrote about this y- like 2015, so soon after we did that show, I was probably working on it at the time. I had a book called... I had published a book called More Human: Designing a World Where People Come First. And the kind of main thing in the book was everything's too big and bureaucratic and centralized, and we've gotta get back to the human scale. So it's mainly about other kinds of policy areas, but I did write about this thing and kids and tech, and I said at the time, we sh- you know, kids under 16, I, I said then, shouldn't have smartphones. You can give them other phones to stay in touch, but smartphones, bad idea. It's the screens. And so I see all this going on, and I think, "Yeah, have a go at Meta or whatever," WhatsApp or YouTube I think they're coming for as well.

   18. JRJoe Rogan19:00

       They're coming for YouTube. That's interesting.

   19. SHSteve Hilton19:02

       Definit- yeah, they are. There's already been a couple. And-

   20. JRJoe Rogan19:05

       This episode is brought to you by BlueChew. Man, let's talk about BlueChew. They're already the number one brand for better sex, but what they're doing with BlueChew Gold is completely next level. Gold is a four-in-one formula designed to make your bedroom noisy again. Obviously, it gets you hard, like you're back in your 20s, and everything is handled 100% online. But Gold boosts your arousal, getting you ready for sex physically and mentally. Plus, it dissolves under your tongue for faster absorption, so you get that spontaneous energy back. Look at the stats. Gold is three times stronger, five times faster, and eight times longer-lasting than old school methods. BlueChew Gold is the real deal. Right now, buy two months of BlueChew Gold and get the third free with my code Rogan. You will also receive free overnight shipping. Head over to bluechew.com for details and important safety information. Check it out. This ad and the products being advertised are intended for a United States audience. Well, that's like coming for television, though. And it's like-

   21. SHSteve Hilton20:16

       I, I know. It's weird

   22. JRJoe Rogan20:17

       ... user-created television. You know?

   23. SHSteve Hilton20:19

       I think it's the screens, though.

   24. JRJoe Rogan20:21

       Right. But the screen's the problem, right? It's not the content creators.

   25. SHSteve Hilton20:24

       That's what I'm, that's what I'm thinking.

   26. JRJoe Rogan20:25

       And then if they are coming after YouTube, then they're kinda coming after me, right? 'Cause, like, I'm making people addicted to listening to people talk.

   27. SHSteve Hilton20:31

       Exactly.

   28. JRJoe Rogan20:32

       Well, how are you gonna say that that's bad? Uh, the four states seek substantial financial penalties. Reports differ on the precise figure, with recent reportings describing the state's position as roughly 200 billion, while Meta has cited a possible exposure as high as 1.4 trillion. The ultimate penalty, if Meta loses, would be determined by the court. They also want court-ordered changes to Facebook and Instagram, potentially including parental verification for teen accounts, changes to recommendation algorithms characterized as dopamine manipulating, removing or limiting like counts, infinite scroll, autoplay, appearance-

   29. SHSteve Hilton21:11

       Yeah

   30. JRJoe Rogan21:11

       ... altering filters, multiple accounts, and disappearing content such as stories. What? People love that.
7. 23:43 – 26:32

   Kids, screens, video games, and social-media-driven ideology shifts

   1. SHSteve Hilton23:43

      Yeah, exactly. But you've got with, with ki- I hear actually all the time, it's not discussed like a political issue, like we talk about gas prices or whatever, but then I, I've done a lot of events the last, whatever, year and a half, like, really a lot. Thousands and thousands of people sometimes. Big events, small round tables. You hear a lot of people, and they... The first set of things they talk to you about are what you might... 'Cause they think you're a candidate. This is politics. Let's talk about taxes and gas prices and the kinds of things that you'd think they th- you know, are sort of assumed to be part of the political conversation. But then when you raise something like that Like, the kids and the screens, that totally changes the conversation and suddenly they're, like, intense and kind of r- really kind of angry in a totally different way.

   2. JRJoe Rogan24:33

      In what way?

   3. SHSteve Hilton24:35

      It's like, "What are we supposed to do?" It's pe- it's, it's like, well, for parents, it's like with, with the screens and the social media, and then the video games, and now it's AI, and they're talking to AI, and then the AI is doing their homework. Like, what are we supposed to do?

   4. JRJoe Rogan24:49

      Well, I'm glad you brought up video games because video games are far more addictive than social media.

   5. SHSteve Hilton24:55

      Yes. Yes.

   6. JRJoe Rogan24:56

      Video games are insanely addictive, and no one's trying to get rid of that.

   7. SHSteve Hilton24:59

      Exactly.

   8. JRJoe Rogan25:00

      It's because these things can change the way people think.

   9. SHSteve Hilton25:03

      Yeah.

   10. JRJoe Rogan25:03

       They can change p- public opinion, and they can move people in, in certain directions. I attribute it to the rise of, you know, the Democratic socialists. I attribute it to the rise... I mean, the, it's, it's-

   11. SHSteve Hilton25:14

       Mm-hmm

   12. JRJoe Rogan25:14

       ... a lot of this manipulation.

   13. SHSteve Hilton25:16

       Mm-hmm.

   14. JRJoe Rogan25:16

       These ideas, like-

   15. SHSteve Hilton25:17

       Mm-hmm

   16. JRJoe Rogan25:17

       ... people are really getting, "Oh, may- maybe being socialist is cool."

   17. SHSteve Hilton25:20

       Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan25:20

       Like, this is all coming out of social media, 100%.

   19. SHSteve Hilton25:23

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan25:23

       It's not natural-

   21. SHSteve Hilton25:24

       Yeah

   22. JRJoe Rogan25:24

       ... that people are sitting around, you know, r- reading Marx and going, "What a great idea. Like, let's implement this." They're not doing that.

   23. SHSteve Hilton25:32

       Yes.

   24. JRJoe Rogan25:32

       They're n- uh, very few of these, quote-unquote, "Marxists" that you find on social media are even aware of the consequences-

   25. SHSteve Hilton25:40

       What it actually is. Yeah

   26. JRJoe Rogan25:40

       ... the historical consequences-

   27. SHSteve Hilton25:41

       Yeah

   28. JRJoe Rogan25:41

       ... of these s- these strategies, and what it ultimately leads to, which is, like, checkers. It's, like, real simple. Like, you're gonna have a military that controls everything you do.

   29. SHSteve Hilton25:51

       Yes.

   30. JRJoe Rogan25:51

       As soon as you give up all, everything to the state, well, the state has the guns and you have nothing-
8. 26:32 – 31:59

   Safety nets, UBI, and a “business-friendly living wage” proposal

   1. JRJoe Rogan26:32

      I'm very torn on social safety nets. Um, I think we should have them because I think a person who's down on their luck, where things go wrong, like a, a woman who has children and her husband dies-

   2. SHSteve Hilton26:45

      Mm-hmm

   3. JRJoe Rogan26:45

      ... and she doesn't have an income, and now-

   4. SHSteve Hilton26:47

      Mm-hmm

   5. JRJoe Rogan26:47

      ... "Oh my God, I have to feed these children," yeah, we should have social safety nets. I also think social safety nets encourage people to rely on them and have zero ambition.

   6. SHSteve Hilton26:56

      Mm-hmm.

   7. JRJoe Rogan26:57

      I think both those things are true.

   8. SHSteve Hilton26:58

      Well, that's why I'm so, um... R- I've always been against, I can see the argument for, but I've always been against this universal basic income type thing. Um, there's an argument for it where it's, like, quite a low level, and there w- that's so- the, the original guy that I think used to argue for that was on the right, Milton Friedman.

   9. JRJoe Rogan27:16

      Yes.

   10. SHSteve Hilton27:16

       And Charles Murray, I think, also-

   11. JRJoe Rogan27:18

       Yeah

   12. SHSteve Hilton27:18

       ... argued for it, coming from the right. But their version of it was to replace everything else, so you wouldn't have any other benefits.

   13. JRJoe Rogan27:26

       Right.

   14. SHSteve Hilton27:26

       You wouldn't have any other government services, basically.

   15. JRJoe Rogan27:28

       Right, no Medicaid-

   16. SHSteve Hilton27:29

       Nothing

   17. JRJoe Rogan27:29

       ... no nothing. Yeah.

   18. SHSteve Hilton27:30

       Just an amount of money-

   19. JRJoe Rogan27:31

       Uh-huh

   20. SHSteve Hilton27:32

       ... based from... It's very simple, less bureaucratic, and that's it. But this is not what's being argued now.

   21. JRJoe Rogan27:37

       No, I think that would actually probably be a lot financially more efficient 'cause you would radically reduce the amount of government.

   22. SHSteve Hilton27:43

       Exactly, and the bureaucracy.

   23. JRJoe Rogan27:45

       Yes. Radically reduce the amount of people that have control over other people.

   24. SHSteve Hilton27:48

       Exactly.

   25. JRJoe Rogan27:49

       And you would say, "Listen, we're gonna cut out the middleman and just give-

   26. SHSteve Hilton27:53

       Yes. Yes

   27. JRJoe Rogan27:53

       ... the money to people." That's not a bad idea.

   28. SHSteve Hilton27:56

       So I had a... I got, and it was very funny in that, like, you say these things before you ever imagine being a candidate, and they come back and, and it gets sort of twisted.

   29. JRJoe Rogan28:05

       Part of the problem with welfare is, and this is gonna sound completely like I'm contradicting myself, but it's not enough money. You barely live.

   30. SHSteve Hilton28:13

       Well, this is what I was s- exactly what I was saying. So I... Was it in that book? I think in that book, the 2015 book, More Human, I had this idea based on what you're talking about, which is actually for a lot of people, things like, like the minimum wage, for example, is just... You can't live on it, especially, like, in California now.
9. 31:59 – 39:54

   California’s ‘doom loop’: bureaucracy growth, NGO slush funds, and homelessness money

   1. SHSteve Hilton31:59

      But the, b- but because we've built all of this bureaucracy-

   2. JRJoe Rogan32:04

      Right

   3. SHSteve Hilton32:04

      ... certainly in Ca- All I really know is California, and just the level of the government in all its forms is so big. You're paying all these taxes, and the taxes are coming out in all these hidden ways. Gas taxes, housing taxes. They, they don't call a housing tax, but it's the... Everywhere you look, they've got these things that they're charging you.

   4. JRJoe Rogan32:25

      Right.

   5. SHSteve Hilton32:26

      But, which makes everything more expensive, and what, what do you get for it? This bloated bureaucratic government that's not actually helping anything.

   6. JRJoe Rogan32:33

      Right.

   7. SHSteve Hilton32:33

      It's actually making it harder to run a business, harder to build anything. And so I think that's... And this is the, I used to call it this doom loop, that the Democrats who are in charge, even they, they get it, right? They get that people are really struggling. People can't afford stuff. So what's their response? "Oh, we gotta, you know, make, give them more welfare bene- We gotta t- take, put taxes up in order to get more money to redistribute." But that just makes everything more expensive. They never think about, "Well, why don't we just cut the costs? Why don't we [laughs] just reduce the amount that we're taking so that people can have more?"

   8. JRJoe Rogan33:10

      Yeah, but then they would have to cut out their slush fund.

   9. SHSteve Hilton33:12

      [laughs] There you go.

   10. JRJoe Rogan33:13

       'Cause that's really what it is.

   11. SHSteve Hilton33:14

       That's it.

   12. JRJoe Rogan33:14

       It's a big-ass, big-ass slush fund. One of the things that we pointed out was that the number of people that, uh, moving to California, and the- even living in California, it shrank, but government doubled.

   13. SHSteve Hilton33:27

       Yes. It's, there's so many insane facts like that. So they-

   14. JRJoe Rogan33:32

       Right, where they say, "Oh, we've created so many jobs." Like, really? Have you?

   15. SHSteve Hilton33:37

       Oh, it's such bullshit. Don't get me sta-

   16. JRJoe Rogan33:37

       Have you really created, created an actual job, or have you figured out another way to increase the government and make more taxes work for whatever the fuck-

   17. SHSteve Hilton33:48

       Exactly

   18. JRJoe Rogan33:48

       ... NGO you have or nonprofit you have or... Like, someone pointed out that the, the, there's this guy, uh, this guy who has these really funny reels on Instagram-

   19. SHSteve Hilton33:57

       Uh-huh

   20. JRJoe Rogan33:57

       ... and how much things cost versus, like, what you could get for. And, you know, he was talking about, like, some new, uh, thing they're doing for the convention center. It's, like, a $5 billion renovation, and he was, like, listing all the different things.

   21. SHSteve Hilton34:12

       Yes.

   22. JRJoe Rogan34:12

       And one of them that you could give, like, every single person on, on skid row some fucking preposterous amount of money. And it's, you just realize, like, oh, they don't wanna fix any of this. Like, the people that are working for the homeless, he was ta- talking about.

   23. SHSteve Hilton34:27

       Yeah.

   24. JRJoe Rogan34:27

       The average salary was, like, $800,000.

   25. SHSteve Hilton34:30

       There was just one last week. Uh, this woman runs a homeless nonprofit, $1.6 million a year salary.

   26. JRJoe Rogan34:37

       [laughs]

   27. SHSteve Hilton34:37

       Homeless nonprofit.

   28. JRJoe Rogan34:38

       Nonprofit.

   29. SHSteve Hilton34:39

       Exactly. That's... The nonpro-

   30. JRJoe Rogan34:40

       And she's killing it.
10. 39:54 – 42:11

    Rigging, one-party dominance, and ‘too big to rig’ political theater

    1. SHSteve Hilton39:54

       But they've legalized all of this. That's the point. And so I always say, yeah, we've got this system, but there's only one answer in advance of being able to get in power and do something about it, is we just gotta get every vote. We've gotta get every vote. And I know, I... People look at this race and say, "Well, you're never gonna win. It's hopeless." I don't think that's true. I think that, actually, people are really pissed off. If you give them a sense that we can really... This is not a hopeless cause, and I think we're showing that. We've just gotta p- I mean, he's li- I've got this guy running against me who's just a complete joke. I mean, he's-

    2. JRJoe Rogan40:28

       Who is it?

    3. SHSteve Hilton40:29

       He's called Xavier Becerra. He was Biden's health secretary. He was... I mean, I'd, I, I wanna say one thing before I say the most important thing about him. But since we've been, just been having a go at him, telling the truth about what he did as Biden's health secretary, his score's been coming down with not that much effort from us, and we don't have money. We're a scrappy startup, right? They've got this big machine. The government unions, they just, you know, roll on. He's, he's... Like, the first poll that came out in the, in the race was just after the primary. It looks... It's over. What's the point? You know, 61-36. He had 61. I had 36. The next one is, like, 55... This is just the other week. 55, I think I had 37. There's one we just heard about where the gap's under 10%. So no one wants this to go on in California. There's a majority who want to get rid of this, but it's just been this sense that it's impossible, and we just have to put up with it or leave, and I think we gotta... If we change that attitude, I think people are gonna vote these, this, this regime out. It's so bad. Anyway, the thing-

    4. JRJoe Rogan41:42

       Well, we've seen the, the map, the electoral map that they put out from 2020-

    5. SHSteve Hilton41:48

       Mm-hmm

    6. JRJoe Rogan41:48

       ... versus 2024, and the difference being, you look at all the counties that went red-

    7. SHSteve Hilton41:54

       Yeah

    8. JRJoe Rogan41:54

       ... that used to be blue, where people are freaked out. The problem is these high-population urban areas where people live in these liberal bubbles-

    9. SHSteve Hilton42:03

       Mm-hmm

    10. JRJoe Rogan42:04

        ... which is Los Angeles, is the craziest version of that. 'Cause-

    11. SHSteve Hilton42:07

        And Los Angeles County is 23% of the vote in all of California.

11. 42:11 – 1:17:40

    Overmedication, SSRIs, and health as lifestyle: exercise, food, and community

    1. JRJoe Rogan42:11

       Let's put this into Perplexity. Ask Perplexity how many people in Los Angeles are on SSRIs.

    2. SHSteve Hilton42:21

       Okay. I didn't think that's where you were going. [laughs]

    3. JRJoe Rogan42:24

       I would like to now.

    4. SHSteve Hilton42:25

       Okay.

    5. JRJoe Rogan42:25

       I, well, I think there's a lot of people that are, uh, they're medicated, and it's, it, it's part of what helps them agree to this nonsense, is that they're in this zombie-

    6. SHSteve Hilton42:35

       Mm-hmm

    7. JRJoe Rogan42:35

       ... catatonic state from antidepressants and antipsychotics and anti this and anti that, and anxiety medication, and they're fucking cloudy.

    8. SHSteve Hilton42:45

       Mm-hmm.

    9. JRJoe Rogan42:45

       They don't see things, and they're surrounded by this echo chamber of people-

    10. SHSteve Hilton42:49

        Yeah

    11. JRJoe Rogan42:49

        ... that only agree with them. No reliable public count of current SSRI users, specifically in Los Angeles, but a reasonable r-

    12. SHSteve Hilton42:57

        Wow. Wow

    13. JRJoe Rogan42:57

        ... a rough estimate for Los Angeles County is on the order of 500,000 to 700,000 adults, not a precise head, precise head count. Now, how many people are in Los Angeles?

    14. SHSteve Hilton43:07

        There's 10 million in the county.

    15. JRJoe Rogan43:09

        Okay. I think that's way low. I think that's way low. I bet it's 10 times that. [laughs]

    16. SHSteve Hilton43:16

        [laughs]

    17. JRJoe Rogan43:17

        I bet it's everyone. I think... No. No, all bullshit aside, I, I bet there's a few million. Los Angeles County has roughly 7.8 to 8 million adults.

    18. SHSteve Hilton43:26

        I thought it was five in there.

    19. JRJoe Rogan43:26

        If about 11 to 17% take antidepressants, roughly 60 to 70% of antidepressant users takes, take an SSRI. The implied range is 530 to 950, so maybe a million. I think it's probably a few million. I know a lot of people that are on them, man. A lot. I think it's, like, more represented in Los Angeles. And there's also this idea-

    20. SHSteve Hilton43:48

        Mm-hmm

    21. JRJoe Rogan43:48

        ... that you need a medication because you have-

    22. SHSteve Hilton43:50

        But that's just so-

    23. JRJoe Rogan43:50

        ... an imbalance. You need medication.

    24. SHSteve Hilton43:52

        This overmedica- that's really bad.

    25. JRJoe Rogan43:55

        Well, also the-

    26. SHSteve Hilton43:56

        Just generally

    27. JRJoe Rogan43:56

        ... imbalance thing has been disproven.

    28. SHSteve Hilton43:58

        Yeah.

    29. JRJoe Rogan43:58

        It's not real.

    30. SHSteve Hilton43:59

        No.
12. 1:17:40 – 1:21:30

    Homelessness drivers: addiction, mental illness, ‘Housing First,’ and Medicaid’s IMD rule

    1. SHSteve Hilton1:17:40

       Well, because the money... Well, the answer to the question is very obvious. I mean, when we say you- that term homeless industrial complex-

    2. JRJoe Rogan1:17:47

       Yeah. It's real

    3. SHSteve Hilton1:17:48

       ... what is it? You look at it, it's basically got two parts to it. You got the nonprofits, like we talked about, that just keep getting the money. For, you know, they've actually made it illegal to solve the problem.

    4. JRJoe Rogan1:17:59

       [laughs]

    5. SHSteve Hilton1:17:59

       So, they've... No, I'm not joking. They've... It's illegal to, for state money to go to any of these organizations that require any kind of response from the homeless person. So, you can't require, uh, addiction treatment, recovery, anything like that. Job training, nothing. You... It's illegal. It's called Housing First. So, like, obviously, when you've got 80%... And the fentanyl is a really big part of the problem.

    6. JRJoe Rogan1:18:27

       The idea that it's a housing issue is so preposterous too.

    7. SHSteve Hilton1:18:30

       I know.

    8. JRJoe Rogan1:18:30

       It's just so preposterous.

    9. SHSteve Hilton1:18:30

       So, you got, so you got the nonprofits, but then the other part of it, which is where actually the bulk of the money's going, are these crony developers. The, uh, there's a very small group of developers, house builders, that build these apartment units. They called it permanent supportive housing. The, uh, the, you know, shelter. And they're, they're charging up to, I mean, a low-ball estimate is about $600,000. There are some in LA and in the Bay Area that are $900,000, a million dollars per unit to build. Right? I've got a friend that builds apartments in the Bay Area, right? You know, he said, "Without all the government bullshit that goes around it, the layers of nonsense that they put in if it's taxpayer money, the union contracts, that you've got to use this kind of material, the environmental, all this stuff, you could build it for a quarter, like $250,000 per door," they call it. Four times as much. That's where the money's going. And then you get the unit, whatever, they put the homeless person in there who's still addicted to fentanyl. And as I, I went... Again, with a real charity in Venice, we went round. A guy who's a recovered addict, recovering addict, and 23 years clean, and he's actually trying to help people. He actually hire- you know, he rents Airbnbs, and he does group recovery, and they have a, you know, recovery program they do together. He says, like, these guys that are getting the permanent supportive housing, it's like a second home, because they're going back to the street to buy drugs, deal drugs, because they're addicts.

    10. JRJoe Rogan1:20:05

        Yeah. That's-

    11. SHSteve Hilton1:20:05

        And you're not changing the behavior

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:20:07

        ... they're addicts and they're mentally ill, and so there's a, a massive influx of homeless people during the Reagan administration, where they kind of, like, opened the doors of the mental institutions-

    13. SHSteve Hilton1:20:17

        Exactly

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:20:17

        ... and said, "Well, we're not gonna fund this anymore." Which is, for, for public health and safety, that is a fucking terrible idea.

    15. SHSteve Hilton1:20:24

        Yeah. And they... But then the other thing about that, I completely agree, is that, that they then, that's been incorporate- that idea that you can't have, um, mental institutions, insane asylums, there's this kind of general sense that that's barbaric and you don't want people in these institutions, and it's better to have them cared in the community. So that's incorporated into, into Medicaid. And so often with government, you've got to look at the money flows, and one of the things that's still there is this rule called IMD, Institutions of Mental Disease, and the IMD rule is that there's no reimbursement from federal Medicaid to any treatment that happens in a facility with more than 16 beds. It's a very specific limit, 16 beds, because they don't w- It's all based on this philosophy of we don't want big mental-

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:21:16

        Mm

    17. SHSteve Hilton1:21:16

        ... institutions.

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:21:17

        Okay.

    19. SHSteve Hilton1:21:19

        So that means that there's no incentive to have modern, large-scale mental health care.

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:21:26

        Right.

    21. SHSteve Hilton1:21:26

        Because that's all these small things, because you don't get any money back if all these people-

13. 1:21:30 – 1:40:45

    Canada mental health detention video and AI-era authoritarian risk

    1. JRJoe Rogan1:21:30

       I think people are also rightly suspicious of the potential for a medical health industrial complex.

    2. SHSteve Hilton1:21:38

       Definitely. And that, that was-

    3. JRJoe Rogan1:21:39

       And then, I mean, think of how many people. Imagine if they could just... Like, have you ever seen that video of there's a guy who gets pulled over, and the cops on the spot tell him that he's been evaluated as being mentally unwell, and he needs to come in, and the guy is completely calm and rational-

    4. SHSteve Hilton1:21:56

       Mm-hmm

    5. JRJoe Rogan1:21:56

       ... when he's talking to him. And he's like, "Well, make an appointment-

    6. SHSteve Hilton1:22:00

       Mm-hmm, mm-hmm

    7. JRJoe Rogan1:22:00

       ... and I'll, I'll go and get evaluated." And he's like, "No, we're gonna bring you in." He's like, "What are you, what are you, what are you, what are you saying?" "Well, you've been deemed unwell." He's like, "By who? I don't have... There's no ruling-

    8. SHSteve Hilton1:22:09

       I haven't seen that. That's crazy

    9. JRJoe Rogan1:22:09

       ... against me." It's really interesting. So apparently there's more to it. Um, and this video went viral. Apparently there have been some videos of this guy-

    10. SHSteve Hilton1:22:18

        Mm-hmm

    11. JRJoe Rogan1:22:18

        ... where he posted online where he's acting kind of loony.

    12. SHSteve Hilton1:22:20

        Mm-hmm.

    13. JRJoe Rogan1:22:21

        Uh, I saw a couple of them. I was like, "Yeah, it's a little problem. A little problematic."

    14. SHSteve Hilton1:22:25

        Okay.

    15. JRJoe Rogan1:22:25

        But could also be he's acting out on camera. I don't know if he's doing this in real life. Like, just because someone's doing it in videos. So, like, a lot of people-

    16. SHSteve Hilton1:22:33

        Yeah

    17. JRJoe Rogan1:22:33

        ... act out in video just for attention, or maybe that's how he blows off steam, says wild shit like, you know, "We need to eat the earth" or I don't know what the fuck he's saying. So there's... But the video is very disturbing.

    18. SHSteve Hilton1:22:46

        Mm-hmm.

    19. JRJoe Rogan1:22:46

        Because in that moment-

    20. SHSteve Hilton1:22:48

        Mm-hmm

    21. JRJoe Rogan1:22:48

        ... if the, these police officers in Canada-

    22. SHSteve Hilton1:22:51

        Mm-hmm

    23. JRJoe Rogan1:22:51

        ... are supposed to be evaluating someone who doesn't have a, an official psych evaluation-

    24. SHSteve Hilton1:22:57

        Mm-hmm

    25. JRJoe Rogan1:22:57

        ... where he's been brought in and they've-

    26. SHSteve Hilton1:22:58

        Mm-hmm

    27. JRJoe Rogan1:22:58

        ... said, you know, "You have to be institutionalized." So that hasn't happened.

    28. SHSteve Hilton1:23:01

        Mm-hmm.

    29. JRJoe Rogan1:23:02

        And so they're pulling this guy over-

    30. SHSteve Hilton1:23:04

        That's terrible
14. 1:40:45 – 2:02:27

    Comedy, ‘woke’ cultural constraints, and building the Comedy Mothership

    1. SHSteve Hilton1:40:45

       What have we do- uh, we wa- one of the things is, like, we're on the road the whole time, like, long drives. It's California, and um, so [laughs] you'll find some of these... You know, every now and again you just want something, you know, f- so the i- you wa- I've... There's a lot of movies, it turns out, that are big parts of American culture that I'm, I haven't seen. Um, we watched, what was it, the other night? Superbad. I'd never seen it.

    2. JRJoe Rogan1:41:07

       Oh. [laughs]

    3. SHSteve Hilton1:41:08

       I'd never seen it.

    4. JRJoe Rogan1:41:08

       That's a classic.

    5. SHSteve Hilton1:41:09

       It's so good.

    6. JRJoe Rogan1:41:10

       It's one of the best comedies of all time.

    7. SHSteve Hilton1:41:11

       It was so good, and I'd never seen it.

    8. JRJoe Rogan1:41:13

       Fucking great. I unfortunately tried watching with my kids when they were 10 and 12.

    9. SHSteve Hilton1:41:17

       Oh.

    10. JRJoe Rogan1:41:17

        I'm like, "Here, sit down and watch this," and then we shut it off after three minutes like this is... Sorry. I forgot.

    11. SHSteve Hilton1:41:22

        It's so good.

    12. JRJoe Rogan1:41:23

        Yeah, I forgot.

    13. SHSteve Hilton1:41:23

        Brilliant, right? I mean, it's not just-

    14. JRJoe Rogan1:41:24

        Brilliant

    15. SHSteve Hilton1:41:25

        ... like, funny and a kind of slapstick with a bit of that, but it was just really clever. It was good writing.

    16. JRJoe Rogan1:41:30

        The scene where the kid's just sitting in class drawing dicks.

    17. SHSteve Hilton1:41:32

        It's so... [laughs] Yeah.

    18. JRJoe Rogan1:41:34

        [laughs] It's brilliant.

    19. SHSteve Hilton1:41:36

        It's so funny.

    20. JRJoe Rogan1:41:37

        By the way, could not make that movie today, and the people that made-

    21. SHSteve Hilton1:41:40

        Oh, that's what we were saying

    22. JRJoe Rogan1:41:41

        ... that movie would not make that movie today.

    23. SHSteve Hilton1:41:42

        Yeah. We were literally talking about it. So my friend Eric, who you just... He's, he's on my team. We've become good friends. He's, um, he's, you met him earlier. Like, that's exactly what we were saying.

    24. JRJoe Rogan1:41:51

        Yeah.

    25. SHSteve Hilton1:41:51

        Like, you couldn't make it.

    26. JRJoe Rogan1:41:52

        They got captured. Well, they got captured. The, that's the problem with being on the team of the left. They got captured-

    27. SHSteve Hilton1:41:58

        Yeah

    28. JRJoe Rogan1:41:58

        ... by an ideology that destroyed comedy in, in their world, right?

    29. SHSteve Hilton1:42:03

        Yeah.

    30. JRJoe Rogan1:42:03

        They cannot do that kind of comedy anymore.
15. 2:02:27 – 2:15:21

    COVID origins, Fauci, Stanford conflicts, and media incentives

    1. SHSteve Hilton2:02:27

       With a ma- I know. It's so crazy. I remember d- it's so funny thinking about, 'cause all this r- I was reminded of all this because of the Fauci stuff the other day.

    2. JRJoe Rogan2:02:35

       Yeah, the Fauci stuff.

    3. SHSteve Hilton2:02:36

       I mean, Fauci.

    4. JRJoe Rogan2:02:36

       It's wild.

    5. SHSteve Hilton2:02:37

       Well, 'cause I was really, honestly, I mean, I'm, you know, I did this show on Fox News. I'm, would never say I'm a journalist, right? Ev- ever. Um, it was an opinion show. I just said what I thought. But I did do some, I, like one piece of journalism, like actual journalism, which is the Fauci stuff. It's infuri- you know, the origin of the virus. I really did, you know, lay that all out in a way that no one else did, 'cause I had these people I knew at Stanford. I taught at Stanford. So a lot of that information about Fauci and the origin and the, all of that, I had for, and, and people helped p- me piece it together. And it's just infuriating that he's still-

    6. JRJoe Rogan2:03:16

       Infuriating

    7. SHSteve Hilton2:03:17

       ... skating.

    8. JRJoe Rogan2:03:17

       Well, it, the, the-

    9. SHSteve Hilton2:03:17

       And the thing that I just-

    10. JRJoe Rogan2:03:18

        ... most infuriating to me thing was that he knew about the miscarriages during the first trimester. He knew about that, and, uh, he was still promoting it for pregnant women. Like, how many women listened to him and got vaccinated-

    11. SHSteve Hilton2:03:30

        This is disgusting

    12. JRJoe Rogan2:03:30

        ... and then had a miscarriage?

    13. SHSteve Hilton2:03:32

        But this, uh-

    14. JRJoe Rogan2:03:32

        I mean, we don't even know what the numbers are, right? 'Cause those are never reported as vaccine injuries.

    15. SHSteve Hilton2:03:37

        Oh, the whole thing is-

    16. JRJoe Rogan2:03:37

        We have no idea

    17. SHSteve Hilton2:03:38

        ... just infu- I mean, but I, I was listening to, who did you have on the other week? Um, that lady who wrote the b- uh, you got into it with her. She had a book. You were talking about, I can't remember. She's like an investigative [tsks] -

    18. JRJoe Rogan2:03:49

        Annie Jacobson?

    19. SHSteve Hilton2:03:50

        Yeah, yeah, yeah. She, great.

    20. JRJoe Rogan2:03:51

        She, about the, uh, germ warfare, about-

    21. SHSteve Hilton2:03:54

        Yeah, yeah. All of that

    22. JRJoe Rogan2:03:54

        ... biological warfare?

    23. SHSteve Hilton2:03:55

        So I was just listening to that, and then I did th- like you're talking about-

    24. JRJoe Rogan2:03:58

        We didn't really get into it. Like, we didn't-

    25. SHSteve Hilton2:03:59

        Little bit

    26. JRJoe Rogan2:03:59

        ... argue about it

    27. SHSteve Hilton2:03:59

        ... little bit on the o- just on the origins and the, and the gain of function and all of that.

    28. JRJoe Rogan2:04:03

        Oh. Well, she just probably was trying to be politically correct, and probably not-

    29. SHSteve Hilton2:04:08

        Well, anyway

    30. JRJoe Rogan2:04:08

        ... maybe still trying to sell books or something.
16. 2:15:21 – 2:27:16

    Becerra and migrant children: alleged fast-tracking, missing kids, and trafficking risks

    1. SHSteve Hilton2:15:21

       That's so crazy. But the thing I was th- thinking of when you, like, the... You know, where you got really dark human consequences. So like J- you know, obviously I'm focused on it 'cause he's my opponent. But the, the story of Becerra and the kids, the migrant kids, it's a story... The, I bring it up to people, and a lot of people have never heard about it. Like, literally no idea-

    2. JRJoe Rogan2:15:42

       What is the story?

    3. SHSteve Hilton2:15:43

       ... what he did. When he... He was, Bob- he had Jo- Bobby's job. And, um, Bobby got his job at HHS secretary. And you had... It was during the four years that you had the open border. And the way it works is that, had millions of people coming across the o- open border. We don't know exactly how many, but the ki- unaccompanied kids are the responsibility of HHS. That's how the system works. So he was responsible for them. And the total number we know, because it's recorded, 479,000 kids.

    4. JRJoe Rogan2:16:14

       Unaccompanied.

    5. SHSteve Hilton2:16:15

       Unaccompanied. Kids without parents. It's an amazing number, in the four years of the Biden administration. All of those kids were my, Javier Becerra's responsibility. So they had... They were overwhelmed, they set up these camps. Do you not know any of this? Have you-

    6. JRJoe Rogan2:16:31

       Yeah, just keep... It's okay. I know some of it.

    7. SHSteve Hilton2:16:32

       They have, they have these camps they set up to process the kids. In Florida, Texas, there were three in California. And the point was to try and get the kids to a safe sponsor, relative, someone who'd look after them. And they had so many, they were overwhelmed, and there's really bad stuff going on in the camps. There were reports of sexual abuse. The older kids, you know, some of the older kids were, like, you know, 17-year-old, rough, you know, some were gang members, whatever. So there was all this shit going on in the camps. Sexual abuse, physical abuse, it was bad. And it was, like, pictures of... You know, like, we went to one in Pomona, one of the exhibition halls. Like, 150 kids on cots. It was bad. And so Becerra wants these kids out because it looks bad, and they'd gone on and on about kids in cages with Trump. And so he basically... And we've now got these whistleblowers coming forward. And the New York Times reported it. The New York Times broke this story, but it's just basically not gone anywhere. They did it in 2023. That he dismantled the vetting that was supposed to put the kids with a safe place. And so they lost track of thousands of kids, and many went to s- child sex traffickers, slave labor, child labor traffickers. Just horrific stories. You had, uh-

    8. JRJoe Rogan2:18:00

       And what was the rationale for-

    9. SHSteve Hilton2:18:02

       Because they were too... They weren't moving them out of the camps quickly enough. So we had a whistleblower come to us, 'cause these people said, "How can he be governor?" Um, who said, "We were supposed to connect the kids with a responsible adult, check their identity, ID checks, home visits, all this. But the, the instruction was, 'It's going too slowly. We gotta get the kids out.'" She said, "Speed over safety." And so when they raised flags about it, like 200 kids sent to an address that turned out to be a container lot, like not a real address, it was just a front for traffickers. Um, a, a kid sent to a woman who was in, wanted by Interpol, like a gang member. Like, just crazy sto- When they raised those stories, they were fired. Like, it's really terrible what happened. And still, there... I mean, HHS just published them, 'cause they were still responsible. Numbers from, I think it was two weeks ago, that there's 330,000 that they're still missing. They don't know where they are. 40 kids died. Like, it's really bad. And yet, it's like Fauci's, like, he's the candidate for governor. No one's really calling him out on it. It's amazing to me. It's really bad, Joe, honestly. You've got-

    10. JRJoe Rogan2:19:30

        That, that is crazy-

    11. SHSteve Hilton2:19:31

        You've gotta go-

    12. JRJoe Rogan2:19:32

        ... that you can be responsible for that many kids and say s- speed over safety.

    13. SHSteve Hilton2:19:36

        So there, there's a story. Again, the whistleblower... We've put them out about the videos. I mean, some people have, you know... This woman said she was a caseworker at Pomona, and Becerra actually visited that camp. Visited, did a photo op, whatever, and he's going on about how we're doing a good job of finding safe places, whatever. Um, and then the interviewer, I was at the taping. It was... She didn't, she's in a job where she doesn't want retaliation, so I was there for the two hours we taped the conversation, and the interviewer asks her, "Did anything change after Becerra's visit?" She said, "Yeah. Everything was... had to speed up, and they had strike teams that were set up to tell us, 'Don't check...'" You know, when she would say, "This ID is obviously a fake ID for this person. Like the photo's, like, a selfie. It's obviously fake. Don't worry. Just send them quick. Get them out." She's like, really bad.

    14. JRJoe Rogan2:20:34

        Jesus Christ.

    15. SHSteve Hilton2:20:34

        And, and this, the, even the New, the New York Times story had a boy who... She had a few examples, 'cause she'd tracked them down. She won a Pulitzer Prize for it. Um, a kid who ended up in a, I don't know, meat packing plant, 13, 14-year-old. Had his arm ripped off in an accident.

    16. JRJoe Rogan2:20:52

        Oh.

    17. SHSteve Hilton2:20:52

        Our, our girl, one of those, she came forward as a whistleblower. She, a, a victim. She was on camera. She said... You know, she's telling the story. She was, like, put on a plane, and they said, you know what happens. They didn't let her take her stuff. She was met at the other end. She said, "There's a, there's three guys." They pic- She has no idea who these people are. She's from, I think, Guatemala. It was El Salvador. Um, gets in a car with three guys, no idea. Taken to a house. She has to work 20 hours a day, sleep on the floor with four guys in a room. She's a girl from... It's, you know, it's just... And there's so many of these stories. Um, Bobby ca- the way Bobby puts it is that Becerra turned HHS into the largest child trafficking operation in history.

    18. JRJoe Rogan2:21:47

        Holy fuck.

    19. SHSteve Hilton2:21:48

        Yeah, exactly. And yet-

    20. JRJoe Rogan2:21:51

        And this guy's running for governor of-

    21. SHSteve Hilton2:21:52

        He's running for governor

    22. JRJoe Rogan2:21:53

        ... California?

    23. SHSteve Hilton2:21:54

        Governor. I remember, honestly, Joe, like, when we did these debates, you know, you'd... We did a lot, and, and not just debates, but forums, and you meet. And I thought he's a nice... You know, I'd see him. We'd chat backstage or whatever, and I thought, you know, he's kind of n- nothing. He's a bureaucrat-type person. Nice guy. Perfectly nice. Smiley. He's a nice, amiable guy. And I just thought he's like an amiable non-entity. But the more you learn about this, it's, like, really bad. Um, because it's a classic thing with these career politicians. Obviously, all that mattered was, "I don't wanna look bad. I don't... We've got all these kids. They're in these camps. The media has access to them. It's really look, making me look bad. Get these kids out." It's just shocking.

    24. JRJoe Rogan2:22:47

        Oh my God.

    25. SHSteve Hilton2:22:47

        It's shocking.

    26. JRJoe Rogan2:22:49

        That's so evil.

    27. SHSteve Hilton2:22:51

        Yeah, it is.

    28. JRJoe Rogan2:22:52

        It's so... And it's also really racist.

    29. SHSteve Hilton2:22:55

        All of them were Latino kids.

    30. JRJoe Rogan2:22:56

        Yeah.

Episode duration: 2:59:32