00:01:22.740My grandfather was a small-town mayor, and it's really the front porch to government.
00:01:28.960There's a special place in heaven for mayors and bartenders because they're the two jobs where you have to listen to everybody's problems.
00:01:35.260You can't really just send the problem up the road.
00:01:38.280My career has been as a mental health psychologist, so I've been listening to people's problems for a long time.
00:01:45.200We will diagnose Gavin Newsom's mental status in moments.
00:01:49.200But first, there is a real conflict that communities are facing in California as it relates to this immigration enforcement discussion.
00:01:58.160Walk us through what El Cajon has faced and how you've navigated that.
00:02:02.760Well, you know, of course, when they were dropping 2,000 people a day off at the border during the Biden administration, they came to three different places.
00:02:11.020One was San Diego, one was Oceanside, and the other was El Cajon.
00:03:08.200Well, right now we're in a situation, I think really every municipality in California is in this situation, where a police officer doing his regular duties or her regular duties is going to violate the law on a daily basis no matter what happens.
00:03:23.640If they follow SB 54, which is the law in California that says we're not allowed to speak to anybody from the federal government regarding immigration, we can't talk to the Border Patrol, we can't talk to ICE, we can't coordinate with them.
00:03:37.000If there's a dangerous person running around, we can't help them.
00:03:40.480If we have somebody that we've arrested that we know is just going to be kicked out back on the street but is deportable,
00:04:51.700I think I have- I will make a prediction this eventually goes to the Supreme Court.
00:04:56.700And I think the Supreme Court is in a situation where they really don't have a whole lot of choice.
00:05:02.240I don't see how the Supreme Court can say that it is okay to violate federal law.
00:05:07.780I just don't see how that can be the case.
00:05:09.580Especially when there's such a constitutional basis for having the federal government resolve these immigration questions.
00:05:17.080It is in the Constitution that the federal government owes a duty to us to protect us from invasion.
00:05:23.660President Trump has observed this invasion harm the country, and now he wants to use local and state law enforcement as force multipliers, people who can assist in that effort.
00:05:34.220Now, there have been some Republicans who I know have worked to convince the president that you really shouldn't do immigration enforcement in blue states.
00:05:44.220It's just too hard. Places like California, Minnesota.
00:05:47.080and really what you need to do is just go to the red states where there's still plenty of illegals
00:05:52.300and there are people like Mayor Wells everywhere to work with and I don't like that advice I think
00:06:01.020that we owe an obligation to Americans in red states and blue states to uphold the law and if
00:06:06.960we start treating states differently based on that then you get a real inequitable application
00:06:13.680What would be the point you would want the president to hear about the need to not forget about red communities and blue states grappling with these questions?
00:07:01.120Yeah, and so you can't leave us alone.
00:07:05.540But the other part of it is the Constitution means something to me.
00:07:09.240I know that's not very interesting to people anymore.
00:07:12.320But the Tenth Amendment says that the federal government has supremacy over the state government.
00:07:18.140This is a perfect example of supremacy.
00:07:21.640And if you ignore that, you set up an example for the states where they can just pick and choose laws that they want to follow and don't want to follow.
00:07:31.900At that point, we are down the road to anarchy.
00:07:34.840We are down the road to having no rule of law whatsoever.
00:07:37.820And I think that's a dangerous place to be living.
00:07:39.920Pearson, you are the unsatisfied everyman.
00:07:42.000And what do you want to see out of your municipal government when dealing with the impossibility of complying with what the California legislature has requested?
00:07:51.900I mean, I like what what Bill has been talking about.
00:07:56.100I like your approach. You've taken a very not antagonistic, but sort of we're going to follow the law and this is the right thing to do.
00:08:03.940And we don't care what you say. And I like that. I think more people need to do that.
00:08:06.800And I think if the state governments in California and Illinois and other places can thumb their nose at the government and say, we're not going to follow that, why can't red cities do that, too?
00:08:17.400Why can't we say, well, we're not going to follow you because you are breaking the law.
00:08:20.980We're going to follow the federal law, which is the right thing to do.
00:08:23.960Why don't we just have an uprising of red cities do that?
00:08:26.420Because in California, if you took out the coastal cities, the state's red, man.
00:08:32.660If we didn't have Prop 50 just redistrict everything, when you look at the districts, we're a red state.
00:08:37.820We've got tons of agriculture, tons of people living in rural communities.
00:08:41.480We want common sense laws to protect our freaking families.
00:08:45.740This is insane what we're having to go through right now.
00:08:49.980Some have suggested this fever dream to me politically right now that because of your crazy jungle primary system, we could have two Republicans in the runoff statewide.
00:09:00.820Yeah, I want to unpack this for viewers who, like most of our viewers would say, wait a second, the Republicans do the Republican primary and the Democrats do the Democrat primary and then they face off against each other.
00:09:13.680Now, Republicans did not bring this to the state of California.
00:09:16.960It was an effort by Democrats to ensure that you had a Democrat against a Democrat in the general election and that Republicans wouldn't even have a seat at the table, which is often the case.
00:09:46.780You've got two Republicans who both are well-known, I think competent, upstanding people, Steve Hilton and Chad Bianco.
00:09:53.780So, I mean, are people crazy to think that this thing that the Democrats imposed on their own state might end up biting them in the rear end?
00:10:03.140I think that if you judge it by Republican standards, it's interesting.
00:10:09.060But the problem is Republicans aren't nearly as disciplined as Democrats are when it comes to keeping the party alive.
00:10:17.420A Democrat strong person will come and pick the person they want to.
00:10:23.280If it gets down to the point where it looks like it's going to be Hilton and Bianco in the finals, three of those Democrats are going to drop out, and somebody's going to be annoyed.
00:10:34.640This sounds exactly like what happened to get Joe Biden the Democrat nomination in 2020.
00:10:40.060You had a bunch of Democrats running, and then right there before Super Tuesday, Barack Obama picks up the phone, Buttigieg drops out, Klobuchar drops out, they screw over Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden becomes the nominee.
00:10:53.100Oh, yeah. So do you envision a world as a Californian? Absolutely. Where Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, the true people that run the Democratic Party get together and say, this is this is our candidate.
00:11:04.360You think there's a chance they won't do that? Well, if I mean, I know who they're picking. You're getting Swalwell.
00:11:10.340Well, yeah, of course. You're totally going to get Swalwell. And well, right now, the last poll I saw, he was ahead. Not by much.
00:11:16.200It was like a point or two, but he was ahead. And so I think the others are going to drop out.
00:11:20.200I think he's going to get chosen, and I think the two Republicans, Bianca and Hilton, are going to split the vote, and we're going to have Swalwell.
00:11:26.540I think Katie Porter's a hard pill to swallow.
00:13:30.200What if you use the – you put this data on this database that, of course, doesn't ask any questions about immigration status or legality status or anything like that.
00:13:41.880But what if you did this and somebody from Arkansas said, oh, well, I'm going to call my friend in ICE and tell him about this person.
00:13:51.900And then they're going to send somebody to pick him up in California.
00:13:55.560They also said – believe it or not, this is a little hard to swallow.
00:13:58.600But if somebody was coming into California for transgender care, we might call Alabama and say, hey, there's somebody here getting transgender care or getting an abortion, and you should pick them up and arrest them when they come back because they came from a state that doesn't allow those things.
00:16:14.480We were able to pick that guy up in about 30 minutes because our license plate reader caught his truck leaving and he didn't go and hurt anybody else.
00:16:23.680All surveillance tools can be helpful.
00:16:28.480Like when I was fighting against what I thought were abuses in FISA at the federal level, we would regularly be presented with, well, it helped us get this guy.
00:17:51.620I think that there are equities to weigh on both sides.
00:17:54.820But where it reaches the point of absurd is when you have the left saying, we're not against surveillance for the sake of the surveillance.
00:18:01.280We're against it because, you know, it could be used by ICE or it could be used by—
00:18:05.940You might pull an illegal, you know, and you might catch him in the net.
00:18:08.580So you know who else right now is obsessed and paranoid about this discussion we're having?
00:18:16.520Vladimir Putin put up the article from Puck News, Putin's post-Iran paranoia.
00:18:23.180And Puck News has this report where Putin has observed how the Israelis hacked the cameras in Iran and used that for years to track where the key members of the regime and the IRGC were, and that that capability allowed Israel to vanquish a lot of people a lot faster than they might otherwise would have done.
00:18:46.680So now Putin has ordered all of the traffic cameras in Russia dismantled as a consequence of this.
00:19:34.620Right, I understand, but the capability that Zelensky, you know, and his regime could use.
00:19:41.140But I don't think he has that capability either.
00:19:43.700Yeah. The point is, if the technology exists to hack these cameras that now we've put everywhere, that Mayor Wells is rightly using to make sure that cops aren't killed and that people who are slaying a poor dentist are captured.
00:19:58.440But if those can be hacked and used by the enemy and we've built that tool for the enemy, at least Vladimir Putin is concerned.
00:20:05.100Maybe you're not as paranoid as Vladimir Putin, Mayor Wells.
00:20:07.300I don't know that anybody's tracking me, but yeah, there's a lot to be worried about.
00:20:12.940that whole pager debacle or, you know, yeah, I mean, actually, I think it was genius, but
00:20:18.240you know, that, that's got to make everybody who's one of the bad guys look at everything
00:20:23.380that they've got on their body and say, is my watch going to explode and kill me?
00:22:22.520defense against a nuclear strike from Iran.
00:22:24.420I think they must be, because I'm not hearing
00:22:26.380a lot about it. The only voices I'm hearing are the people that if Trump cured colon cancer,
00:22:33.100they say, but we loved colon cancer. They're going to look for any excuse to go after Trump
00:22:38.600and not weigh both sides of the argument. The people that I know are just hardworking,
00:22:45.520not overly political people. I think they understand what's going on.
00:22:50.000How long do you think that lasts? Because you made the reference that it's temporary.
00:22:53.940time i think there's a time limit where do you think that stands maybe two three months may four
00:22:58.820if that is that is that how you feel pearson that that two to three four months of of higher prices
00:23:05.200you know if it if it gives people a stronger sense of security is something they will welcome
00:23:10.700possibly but i didn't want this war and i think a lot of people in america didn't want this war
00:23:16.680either you know this is not what i voted for to get involved in foreign wars like this so
00:23:20.220I see no upside at this point we had we had a guest on our program this week who said
00:23:24.420uh this is a 47 year war that Iran has been waging against us we didn't start this war
00:23:29.680we didn't choose this war Trump is ending it how do you respond to that argument yeah I mean they
00:23:34.660they may have posed a threat at one point I don't think we'd have my dad on to talk about this he's
00:23:41.380got very strong feelings about a nuclear armed Iran I don't feel the same way I don't think they
00:23:45.620genuinely posed a threat to us um and I don't think this was necessary I think we got dragged
00:23:49.780in by some allies who were very vigorously pursuing an anti-Iran agenda for many years.
00:23:57.060I think we got pulled in on that one. Now, let the ships fall where they may. I mean,
00:24:03.140we can't, we're in this now. I think we need to win it and we need to win it hard.
00:24:07.620What does that look like to you? What is a victory? When you look at the landscape and say,
00:24:11.780that's how I know we won. To me, it's having a gay guy in charge of Iran. To me, that is total
00:24:17.620complete victory like when you have a gay ayatollah that's not i don't want that don't we don't
00:24:23.440isn't that the case right now right right i i think we can declare victory and walk off the
00:24:28.240secular democracy that that we got this that's not a win for radical islamist theocracy to put
00:24:33.100a gay guy in charge absolutely not when they surrender uh but when's that going to be i don't
00:24:37.300know to who well we've waged war on them so it's either us or israel and it ain't going to be
00:24:41.960israel like if an irgc general wanted to surrender now yeah well they're so who would he walk on the
00:24:48.000streets and surrender to i i honestly well trump's saying that he's on the phone with these people
00:24:52.300that he's making negotiations that he's talking to them and they're making progress so if he's
00:24:56.200talking to someone someone has the authority to surrender over the phone well he did say that
00:25:01.600they were close to or that they were working on in-person talks so i don't know what's happening
00:25:06.700behind the scenes but i think we should clearly i think we should make it a drag brunch we should
00:25:10.580just lean in and have the talks as a drag brunch and bring the gay Ayatollah in and just sass it
00:25:15.900up. How do you see right now the war going from your standpoint as a local leader? And if it
00:25:22.700sounds odd that I'm asking a mayor that question, what I learned in state government, your
00:25:26.600constituents don't care where you rest in government. They think if you're in government,
00:25:32.260you ought to have an opinion on everything. So what's yours? I'm so excited when we get our
00:25:37.340merriweather farm shipments and you get a beautiful piece of ribeye look at that marbling
00:25:41.740now i take it out of the package let it get down to room temperature all i've got on here is a
00:25:46.840little salt a little pepper and then a little avocado oil and then i've had my pan preheating
00:25:52.020with a little oil head to merriweatherfarms.com and enter promo code matt g for 15 off your first
00:26:04.880order. You know, I was just in Israel about a month ago, and I got a chance to talk to a lot
00:26:10.520of people from all the different aspects of people that are living in Israel. And it's clear to me
00:26:18.480that Iran has been the destabilizing influence throughout the Middle East, and that we don't
00:26:26.020get peace until that destabilizing influence is gone. I think that it's important. Israel's
00:26:35.240important to us because it's the one Western-style democracy that we have out there, an ally,
00:26:42.500and we certainly need allies there. Unless you live in Area C of the West Bank,
00:26:46.080then you don't get to vote for the national leaders of the country.
00:26:50.120You know, I don't know about that. I'm sorry. But, you know, I, you know, maybe it's hard for me to be objective. I sent a son to Afghanistan who sustained injuries and, you know, it was really hard for the whole family. And I just don't think that a nuclear armed Iran is a good thing.
00:27:13.480I also don't think Donald Trump gets led by the nose by anybody, not Israel, not BB, not anybody.
00:27:22.700So I have come to trust President Trump.
00:27:27.260I wouldn't say with carte blanche, but for the most part, I trust his instincts.
00:27:32.740I think he's done a good job, and I think he knows things that we don't know,
00:27:36.640and I believe that he's doing the best he can to keep us safe.
00:31:21.100You know, maybe it's been the Obama administration's funding of the Muslim Brotherhood that evolved into ISIS.
00:31:27.440Maybe it's been George W. Bush's toppling of the Iraqi regime that actually strengthened Iran's hand.
00:31:34.200Maybe it was Hillary Clinton working to get Gaddafi out of power in Libya that now has open air slave trade in Libya, just a crime against humanity.
00:31:44.660And so I think that if you compared what Iran's done, which has certainly not been good, to what we've done in Syria, where you've traveled, that we have really, really, really destabilized the Middle East.
00:31:57.780And that when we put boots on the ground and we topple governments, we oftentimes are creating more terrorists.
00:32:36.260There's a bunch of refugees coming into our country.
00:32:38.180It's happened with every one of the last ones.
00:32:40.320The problem with this is this has 100% cost us the midterms.
00:32:44.660like this is it we're dead in the midterm but i agree with mayor wells actually that there are
00:32:49.640times the right thing yeah there are times when you i don't think you do the right political
00:32:53.800kamikaze mission because the the objective has to be achieved true my view this was not the right
00:33:00.140thing though yeah my view is if we would like to do the political kamikaze mission let's do it on
00:33:05.600the mass deportations let's take the political heat let's do the mass deportations and to me
00:33:11.340that would actually improve on the ground for mass deportations i want i want troops in the city
00:33:17.940going house to house getting these people out of here can i ask you a question sure sure man
00:33:22.660so we're we're dealing every country is different in the middle east we're dealing with a country
00:33:29.340that is waiting for the mahti to return that will lead the world into fire everywhere where all the
00:33:38.880non-Muslims will be killed. And this regime feels like it's their obligation to help bring that
00:33:47.580upon us. Now, if they have a nuclear weapon, it's a little different than some of the other
00:33:54.880countries that have nuclear weapons because they don't have this fervent religious drive to try
00:34:01.060to end the world. Some of those Pakistanis do, depending on who's in power in Pakistan at any
00:34:06.520given moment. And look, there was a time when we had, I assume, had to make a decision to let the
00:34:12.400Pakistanis do their thing and have their nuclear weapon or not. I'm just saying that people brush
00:34:19.800off this nuclear problem like, yeah, yeah, whatever. I think it's a big deal. It is, but I can draw on a
00:34:25.800little experience here because, I mean, I'm aware of the reports we got on the Armed Services
00:34:31.000Committee that Iran had suspended their development of delivery systems of intercontinental ballistic
00:34:37.500missiles back in 2015. And Tulsi Gabbard, just within the last two weeks, testified that they
00:34:43.640wouldn't even be able to reignite that program until 2035. And the challenge, that's just part
00:34:50.320of it. Country, the easiest thing about a nuclear program is actually getting the warhead. The
00:34:56.440The second easiest thing is getting that warhead in the air into intercontinental orbit, which, by the way, the Iranians couldn't even get going until 2035.
00:35:04.100And then the third thing, which really no one has been able to achieve at scale other than us, the Chinese, the Russians and the Europeans, is the reentry vehicle, where after the weapon is in orbit and it comes back through the atmosphere, the atmosphere doesn't just dissolve it.
00:35:21.420That's what the North Koreans really never got going.
00:35:25.320They can get it up in the sky, but they can't get the warhead back down in a reentry vehicle.
00:35:30.380So Iran not having those things makes me less concerned about them.
00:35:34.660I do believe that Iran having a nuclear weapon, even if they couldn't deliver it, is a really bad idea because of dirty bombs, because of suitcases, anything that they can do.
00:37:33.000You are an outspoken supporter of the U.S.-Israel relationship.
00:37:37.920I believe Israel has a right to exist.
00:37:40.120I believe that they have a right to self-defense. But when I look at what's happened in Gaza
00:37:45.400and I look at what's happening in southern Lebanon right now, I have a concern for Israel
00:37:51.620that they may be creating more terrorists than they're vanquishing. When I see whole
00:37:56.800apartment buildings and city blocks just laying in rubble, I wonder, gosh, when this is all over
00:38:02.820and we're looking back at this 10 years from now, are we going to say, oh my gosh, thank goodness
00:38:07.080Israel did that because now they're not under this terrible threat of these events like you
00:38:11.140described? Or are we going to say, man, they're under, it's worse than ever because all these
00:38:15.200kids grew up and their parents were dead and they became radicalized. Do you have any of those
00:38:20.180worries about what's happening? Sure. I have all those worries. I just, I think there are some
00:38:26.360things that become so existential that you have to act and you can't plan for all the contingencies.
00:38:33.180And you say, at some point, we have to protect ourselves because this is not working.
00:38:39.860And I was very, very shocked and offended by what happened on October 7th.
00:38:45.820And to me, I always put myself in the frame of mind of if that had been my wife, if that had been my child, if that had been my parents, I don't know.
00:39:00.700But maybe that's why we don't let the parents of the victims make those policy choices because you can get so – have a human moment of rage and anger that captures you in a moment of retaliation.
00:39:14.880Like, if a bunch of Tijuana drug cartels crossed over the border and, God forbid, harmed our families, we probably would be at the front of the line saying, level all of Tijuana and, you know, kill everyone you have to to get the perpetrators.
00:39:31.140Do you think that if that were to happen, 80% of the people in Tijuana would be glad it happened to be celebrating in the streets?