Inside Golden State Politics
Bill Boyarsky and Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, two experienced California political experts, argue about politics from Los Angeles to Sacramento to Washington.
Bill Boyarsky is former city editor of the Los Angeles Times and was also a columnist, bureau chief and political reporter for the newspaper. Previously, he reported on politics for the Associated Press in Sacramento.
He is the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes for team reporting.
Bill is the author of two biographies of Ronald Reagan, a biography of Jesse M. Unruh; Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times, and, with co-author Nancy Boyarsky, Backroom Politics.
Sherry Bebitch Jeffe is a retired professor of the practice of public policy communication at the Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California.
Sherry has been political analyst for KCAL-TV, NBC4 Los Angeles NBC's "Today" show and the BBC, where she was an analyst on American politics for programs in London, Scotland and Wales. In 2006, she was a nominee for the Los Angeles Area Emmy Award for NBC4’s news feature, “Decision 2005: A Voter’s Guide.
She has also appeared on MSNBC, CNN, Spectrum News 1 and Al Jazeera English and on radio shows in the United States and internationally.
Sherry has a Ph.D in government from Claremont Graduate University and a master's in political science from Rutgers, where she was a fellow at the Eagleton Institute of Politics.
Inside Golden State Politics
A Conservative View
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Longtime California Republican strategist Jon Fleischman guides us through the messy California governor's race and offers his views on the future of the California Republican party.
welcome to another episode of Inside Golden State Politics. I'm Bill Bosky, the former city editor and columnist for the Los Angeles Times, and with me is our producer director, Nancy Boar.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918And I am Sherry Beba, Jeffy political analyst and self-styled medium Maven. to you from playing with my new favorite political toy prediction markets to see which. the electoral winds are blowing. Online. No, I do not bet. I'm just tooling around the website smelling out momentum shifts or non shifts in midterm election races. Man, you should have seen Swallow Tank our prediction market's. another sketchy innovation brought to us courtesy of big tech. Or another crazy instrument available to manipulate public opinion and maybe wealth. don't know yet, but it'll be worth watching what happens. Over to you, bill.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919A sucker's bit, Sherry, a sucker's bit. Stay away from him. Waste.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Okay.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919Waste a waste of time. Our guest today is John Fleischman, who is the editor and publisher of the Flash Report, which is one of the smartest summaries in analysis of California politics available. John publishes that. He was state's president of the California Republican Assembly in the late nineties. He was executive director of the California Republican Party, and he gives us the, lowdown on the Republicans in a straight unfiltered way. I mean, you can, really depend on the flash report, which, has a great name and I love it. John, you're back from San Diego where you attended and the Republican State Convention and what's probably was gonna be somewhat slow turned into quite a mess, was it like there? After the swalwell. Explosion rocketed across California politics.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918First of all, foremost, thank you both for having me on the show. You both have forgotten more about California politics than I've ever known, so it's really a privilege to be on. It. That's right. There you go. So it's nice to be on with you. You're not really that you're as old as you act. So
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918I'm
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918with a couple of 14 year olds, so it's okay. And by the way, I've got a lot of opinions about prediction markets if we want to talk about that, but since I've been. in terms of the Republican State Convention, so it was about a, I'd say about 1200 delegates and, probably another three or 400 on that. All converged on the Sheridan Hotel in Mission Bay. You, as you walked into the convention hall, you got to look across the bay and see the USS, Carl George Vincent aircraft carrier. You felt very very patriotic as you went in as a Republican right there it was. And and, and I certainly, I think as people arrived at the convention, everyone was very focused on, swalwell blowing up. And of course, frankly, politics moves along at such a frenetic pace that while there is some interest about. Him blowing up. The mere fact that he blows up causes you want to go, okay, that's another side story now as he devolves and what happens with him, but the real question is where do his votes go? Right? And what does that look like? And we could talk about that. But you're right, this convention was very much, it's been a long time since I've been to a state GOP convention that had this much retail politics going on because it's such a blue state. That, GOP conventions tend to be kind of that moment where of commiseration right? You're, it's your, it's your weekend to actually pretend that if you stepped outside of the hotel, the state looked. Like the people in the hotel when it, when it really doesn't. but the convention was, it was great. You had the signs, you had the yelling, you had the banners, you had the, the retail of all the candidates going around. You had cheering, you had booing, you had shoving, you had, all that stuff is going on. There was a, a lot of excitement in the room, of course, but with the president. The pre right, the president endorsing Hilton five days out at one in the morning on a Monday morning. Certainly added to the, to things. And I will tell you, having been at the convention the momentum at the convention despite the endorsement of the president was very definitely with chair of Bianco for two reasons. One. frankly, he's outta central casting for Republicans, right? You, I mean, the guy's walking around with his 1911 semi-automatic pearl handled pistol on his, on his hip, right? It's.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918And in uniform, right?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918And he was in could call it a uniform. He didn't wear his full uniform, but he had a, he had a polo shirt on with his, his, his, his logo and, and all that. He put on a suit for most of the, most of the time. But he does, he has no problem showing up at events, wearing his uniform, whatever, whatever rules of the, that are supposed to govern, that sort of thing. As they say, if the lawmaker doesn't enforce the law, there's no law, right? But he was well received and and Hilton of course had a lot of energy, but he didn't have as many people there. And, and I, I watched with interest. I knew that when the convention deadlocked and it required a 60% vote of the delegates for either one of the candidates to be endorsed, and when neither candidate hit that threshold, specifically when, when Bianco did not hit that threshold, I knew. Matter of fact, I told Steve Hilton afterwards 'cause he goes, John. He is, he talks with an accent, so I'll try, John, what do you, what do you think happened? Blah, blah, blah. You know what? What's your take on it? And I told him, I said, look the reality is you won here because you got the Trump endorsement to go talk to low information Republican voters. And Bianca really wanted to have a party endorsement to offset that, but.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Oh.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918you read all the newspaper stories, they will all say that you lost because the media will have no, will want to paint this as a rebuke of the president, right? The president endorsed somebody and the party didn't follow suit I explained to some reporters there, just like you would already know this, but. know, this small group of people have been campaigned to by both of these people for the last year. They've been to every city, every county, every republican women's federated meeting, every county central committee meeting. They've shaken the hands. People have made their endorsements. The undecided voters at this convention were non-existent. Not for this small group of base voters, no. So when a president makes an endorsement. Five days out, he'd have to switch people. People that have already signed up and have said, I'm with the sheriff. does that. As a practical matter, I'm not diminishing the importance of that endorsement when Hilton is talking to undecided voters writ large Republicans. the president's endorsement will have an impact on all voters. But in terms of, but, but
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918it will have an impact on Democrats too, don't
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918yeah, I mean, I, I'm a realist. As, as Bill as, as Bill pointed out, I'm a straight shooter. In order for a Republican to win a general election in California, I, now, I have a graphic story. It would take something like what happened with Swalwell, it would've had to happen in the general election something like that happening. I don't see how a Republican could win in California, but we can ask this question amongst us. If this had been June 15th and Swalwell went down and he had resigned, we would've had a Republican governor because the way they wrote Prop 14, there is no provision to take him off the ballot. There's no provision to add someone to the ballot. It would've been swalwell and the Republican and Swalwell will have resigned from Congress. He will have been disgraced and even then. It might've been so many more Democrats that there would've been this big PR blitz with Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris and Gavin Newsom saying Everyone agrees vote for the ghost of, of, of Swalwell. And if he wins the office, he's already agreed not to take the office. And then we'll have a special election, but don't vote for the Republican. And that might've worked. But it doesn't matter, but, but that's
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919what
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918it
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918In a state that has two and a half million more Democrats than Republicans. Right. You guys are the experts.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919Hey, John, as the news of the swalwell story broke? What was the feeling among the delegates? It is just like, oh my goodness. The good Lord has given us this marvelous opportunity. We're on our way.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918know what I, I would tell, so delegates to a Republican convention are no d different than delegates to a Democrat convention. You have the full spectrum. Some of them are the consummate insiders who think they're, think they're the smartest person in the room. Some of them are the smartest people in the room. For those people that was concerned because. You don't want the Democrats to consolidate 'cause they're hoping for a top two Republicans, right? So they, they took the news as, oh no, you want swalwell to drop. You don't want 'em to drop out. that means that that too many votes are gonna consolidate elsewhere. But that was the insiders for the broad group of people. It was cheering his departure because he is not liked. Then of course you get a lot of, of course this happened because every Democrat secretly is a sexual pervert and you know, and you know how it is. Right? We're, we're in the most partisan times in Sherry and Bill, you could tell me. I don't think So I got in, when I got involved in politics, it was the late eighties. You guys have a little bit of time on me, but in my time there's never been a more partisan time than now.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918agree. Even 1968, John
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918There you go. At least I was alive, although I was using a pacifier,
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Yes.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918a pacifier.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918No, I agree. I have never seen I've never seen anything like this gubernatorial race on a, just individual level. have never seen the nastiness, the brutality, so out there it existed. We didn't really get the full import of it in the sixties or the early seventies.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918I mean, I.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918was one, one issue that that broke. It didn't always break
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918Now we have this, this issue with Donald Trump, right? And he is been pervasive now for a decade in American politics. And it, I mean, you two can tell me, Sherry, I may be wrong, but unless two Democrats make the runoff, which is possible,
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918I
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918or two Republicans make the runoff, which I think is less possible, but it's still possible if it's a Republican and a Democrat. lot of people who want to have a conversation about the future of California, what are we doing about housing? What are we doing about homelessness? What are we doing about budget deficits? Nope. It's gonna be a redux of Prop 50. And if you don't like Donald Trump. You need to reject Steve Hilton. And by the way, here's Donald Trump on Steve Hilton's Fox Show. Here's Donald Trump calling into the Steve Hilton Show. Here's how Donald Trump endorsed with his truth social, and there'll be no conversation about the issues that matter. It's gonna be a redux of Prop 50, don't you think? That will be the campaign in the fall.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Let's explain. Tell our listeners what you mean by it's going to be a redux of Product 50.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918Okay.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918that mean?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918I mean, if you're asking me to say it. So the Prop 50 campaign ostensibly was a campaign to talk to the voters about why they should change redistricting in California. And, and.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918did change.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918And they did. They did change it, but there was no conversation about should this be done by a constitutional review commission? Should it be done by the legislature? What kinda lines were drawn by the legislature? What is the impact of all of these states? Moving to Partisan, it was, the messaging was very crystal clear. Donald Trump. Need, this is your opportunity. Donald Trump has been president for almost two years. This is a referendum on Donald Trump. Donald Trump wants you to vote no. You need to vote yes. And so the campaign was really a referendum on Trump for a lot of reasons. But the, the biggest one is having talked to my friends who did the strategy on the Democrat side, that's what turned people out. They felt that they could win the discussion about redistricting. But if you made it about Trump, it motivated the vote. So
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Do to defeat that?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918yeah.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918What was your, your side of the debate? I.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918There was no our side of the debate because I, I, I, I, I mean, there was a side to tell, the side of the debate would've been two wrongs, don't make a right and there's a independent redistricting commission for a reason. And just because other states are throwing out and going back to partisan gerrymanders, we shouldn't. But that argument didn't get get made because once the governor. Established the anti-Trump strategy. And once Speaker Johnson's political people tested that strategy through focus groups in polling, they said, yeah, we're gonna lose. And they didn't spend any money to fight the measure because they couldn't. And so there was no robust debate, debate. kind of really brings us back to the fall here in a governor's race because while the Democrats, I think, whether it's Steyer or wherever it is, is gonna run an anti-Trump campaign, I mean, there's not gonna be any money to fund a Republican governor's campaign in the fall in California. It's gonna be like when when when Adam Schiff spent all that money to help make sure Steve Garvey. Made the runoff for US Senate. Adam Schiff in the fall was the largest single donor to competitive races around the country because he unloaded all of his money to buy favor in his own new conference. 'cause he didn't need to spend it in a state that has, that's a reliably blue state.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919We will continue to be a reliably blue state
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918oh,
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919all through the year. Nothing's gonna change.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918We have the, it's it, it's actually getting bluer because we're now seeing, I call it the great sort, we're seeing, we're seeing liberals in red states moving to blue states, and we're seeing conservatives in red, in blue states, moving to red states. There's gonna be some big impacts of that next to. Decade on, on redistricting and on the presidential electoral college. But as a practical matter, as my friend and colleague Ben Shapiro said the other day on a talk show, host the very PE and understand the context. Ben's a very conservative person like me, the very people that we need to save California. Are leaving California, right? And then, and then, and now with this billionaire tax, now we're seeing a bunch of, of people on the top end of the income spectrum moving out. I'm, so a dull moment in California
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918No. And now I wanna ask you the one dynamic that you didn't touch in terms of ex, the lack of explanation of plans of, of positions of what the, the voter is voting on. the media in all of this? What's going on?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918Yeah, it's a, it, and, and, and part of the problem, and, and we can have a discussion about this, the media has cratered both in, in viewers, but also what's going on is that you're seeing the great sort in the media. Conservative people are going to certain media places, liberal people are going to other media places. The pressure on the media to be able to make money from the clicks is causing a lot of report. great reporters, the ones that you and I love, and I have a huge amount of affection for reporters even when I don't agree with them all the time. The ones that, that do long form journalism, the ones that take the time to write the stories where you read it and you go, I learned something today. Even we learned something. They're retiring and they're being replaced with reporters that are being asked to write two or three stories a day. And even if a reporter writes a balanced story, there's somebody putting a headline on it that isn't balanced. And you really end up, like I said, the real insightful coverage of the Republican Party convention would've been what I told you. headline that they wanted to run was, Trump Gets Middle Finger in San Diego. And that's not really accurate to what happened because what it would've said is Trump's late endorsement had minimal impact on a small audience that was already decided.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Too
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918the
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918for a headline dear.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918Yeah, exactly. Exactly. But I'm just saying that that, that Sherry, for, for your and my part. 'cause I, I now do this substack, it's behind me, so does it matter.com, which Flash report.org still takes you there, but I'm, I'm, I'm doing more long form and more analysis of the why, like what I've just told you I've written about, because I'm trying to fill a hole because I would like to make sure that at least on my side of the aisle, there's something that's. words, not 300 words. And so every day I'm striving to, to, to, to, to try to fill a hole that exists. But it's just, it's the marketplace. The marketplace that we have is, you're getting a lot. I mean like, like all the, it'll sound funny to the two of you hearing me talk about Mario Garza and Steve, who left the LA Times when they were upset because the. The billionaire owner didn't wanna release an an endorsement of Kamala Harris. Kamala Harris, but they've gone over to Substack, which for those people who are watching this that don't know what that is, it's an amazing platform for writers and it's a great place to do stuff. That's where I do stuff. I subscribe to Meryl's stuff. She and I are getting ready to do a substack live together. But she's doing what I'm doing. They're like, we found a home where we can continue to write the long form. Journalism that we wanna write. And so that's, that's kind of what prompted our conversation of, I'm on the right, you're on the left. But you know what, why don't we have those conversations that are deeper and our people that are watching can sort through what you're saying and what I'm saying, it's almost gone from the regular media.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918I think And who is watching or
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918That's why the numbers are pulling the latest numbers. The Los Angeles Times is down to 75,000 subscribers. I am. That's the latest numbers. And those numbers are, some, there's some consolidation. The New York Times, I think is as high as it's ever been. The Wall Street journal is as high as it's ever been because you're seeing a consolidation. It's like everything's going to, the people that have decided we're gonna hang on and do this the old fashioned way, the people that want that are all going to those places and everyone else is. Now do we, how do we get the click? How do we get the headline? Yeah, it's, it's pretty tough.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919And so you as a as a a Substack user and contributor, how do you know how many people are following you?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918Oh, okay. So on substack, it's, a couple things going on, but first of all, it's a got a great subscriber mechanism. So like if you went to FU two, go to www, so does it matter.com, you get a chance to subscribe, right? And it's free. I have a paid tier, which by the way, if either of you sign up, I will upgrade you for free 'cause you're my favorite people. But, but and then so you have subscribers. So when you post, it sends an email to your subscribers. So kind of like a newspaper. So I have thousands of subscribers. So when I do a post, those people get it in their inbox like it's a newsletter.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918That's
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918But then I posted on social media. So like for example, yesterday morning I posted a very heartfelt piece. We didn't talk about it yet, but at the convention I saw way more of these kind of Nick Fuentes white supremacist type people that were hanging out. They were rejected by the party. They, it's not like they were the mainstream or anything like that. So I felt compelled yesterday and I wrote a column. About my party is at a crossroads and we need to reject and eject these people. A bunch of folks shared that around, and so while it was sent to my thousands of subscribers on Substack, it's had over a hundred thousand people read it. Because it went around on X and people started sharing and a lot of people were kinda like, this is how I feel. But John put it in words, please. And so you know people, now that's, I don't, all my stuff doesn't go that far. So that's the model though, bill. Bill is that you have subscribers. They sign up, they get it like a newsletter, but then you also post it around. And then inside of Substack, Substack now has the better part of 40 million. Subscribers that are in their infrastructure. 40 million people are signed up for something in Substack. And so like a third of my readers every day are people that saw the internal substack advertising of my column. They saw it on a top 10 list. They saw it on a, top stories in politics list, and they came over and saw it. So by being in Substack, and this is done because Substack was written. For that re the, the, the writer who wants to get more eyeballs on it. But then it just took off because it's become the home for long form journalism. It's become the place. Where you go to, to, to, to, to read more. And then, then they, like I said, for me, I'm, I do it as a hobby. There's some people like my buddy, I dunno if you guys remember Chris Aliza, who used to be at CNN and then he was at the Washington Post, or he was at the Washington Post, and then he was at CNN. He is prolific. He has. Over a hundred thousand paid subscribers who are all paying $60 a year. So do the math on that. And then he is also on, he's got almost 200,000 followers on YouTube and do the math on those ads. And all he's doing every day is three or four videos. Hard hitting analysis like he does, but you can't get that on the main media news sites anymore. So you get them from Chris. It's the best 60 bucks I pay a year. I love it, love it, love it. And it's awesome and I have no problem paying it. And like I said, I've got about, I've got about 400 people pay me anywhere between 50 and $70 a year to be subscribers on mine, and that's not enough if you do the math. That's not retirement money. I do something else for a living, but you know what it does do? It lets me buy this microphone and it helps me buy a a a a camera and it lets me get a cute logo and have a home podcasting studio, and it gives me some money to take my family on an extra vacation. So they're not mad at me when I'm in my office all the time.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Let's let, let's go back now. I mean, I think that that says a lot about where we are going in terms of, of political communications.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918It does.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918do wanna get back to what you discussed earlier, and that is the dynamic of the Trump endorsements of Hilton. You. been quoted all over as say as saying that the presidential endorsement of hi of Hilton is more important than the party's
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918Oh, for a hundred percent. because Donald Trump as, as unpopular as Donald Trump is with Democrats well, and he is un, he is got 99. It might even be a hundred percent disapproval with Democrats and now. And now he's getting close to like 70%, I think it is in the sixties of disapproval with independent voters. But his numbers with Republicans, he's still got over 80% approval with Republicans, which my political analyst friend Sherry, would say is very healthy for a Republican and, and so it. Yes. But if you're trying to consolidate the Republican vote behind your candidacy, Donald Trump, a, it's gotten earned media, you're gonna see a bump from Hilton, just from the earned media. And that's, and Hilton has millions of dollars in the bank, not the kind of millions that he needs to compete in a general election, but more than enough money to carry digital messaging to every likely Republican voter in California. Making sure. He's, and I'm sure he will send a message, a video message from President Trump saying This is why you need to support my friend Steve Hilton.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Okay, but
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919Hey.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918ahead. I'm
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918'cause he is got the resources to do it. And I don't know how the, I mean, you and I think we would all agree that sheriff's a really good title for a Republican candidate, it's not as sexy as having a, a digital arrive from President Trump saying, I, if we're gonna stop illegal immigration in California, if we're gonna shut down these rioters in the middle of Los Angeles Republicans, I need, Steve Hilton.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Let's look beyond the primary to the general.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918in the general election, it's just an albatross around the, the Hilton's neck. It, like I said, it feeds right into the Prop 50 narrative. The only way I'll, I'll say this, and I got in trouble for saying it too many times already. California is a reliably blue state. The only way for a Republican to win, two things have to happen. The Republican has to run a Pitch perfect campaign and have donors in the wings. So that if the Democrat front runner pulls a S swalwell, now I have a verb.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918oh.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918If the Democrat front runner pulls a S swalwell, that the Republican is poised to take advantage of it. But if a Democrat runs a mediocre campaign, but there's no controversy, that's gonna be the next governor of California and it's just math.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919You you mentioned earlier you, you were talking about betting on elections, like betting on sports. What, what are your thoughts on that? Is it a big. Thing or what?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918here's, I, I have a few things to say. The first of which is you have to wonder about things like. How, how many, how many people did Eric Swalwell have bet on the Eric Swalwell were resigned by the end of the weekend before he did. I wonder how much money he made. Right? Because there, there's always the ability to game the market that way if you're an actor in the process. Right? But my biggest problem with it, first of all. In order to play the prediction markets, you have to first of all be somebody who wants to gamble. You have to be somebody who wants to gamble on politics, and then you have to be somebody who's comfortable converting American dollars into cryptocurrency and buying it on the, I mean, so it's a very narrow group of people. And then. There's no getting around the fact that, say, if you're Tom Steyer or you're Matt Mayhan, know, go have your supporters drop a few hundred thousand dollars of bets, and it completely skews the prediction market. So it's not something that could be used to say here's where the trend is. I mean, I mean, on extreme moments like you saw Sherry with the tanking of swalwell. Yeah, that's a, an indicator. But as a practical matter, if right after Swalwell tanked. Steyer said, you know what? Go have some of our people pay a few hundred thousand dollars in bets. It would spike him up.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918It did well over I think 30 points. It was
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918So I, I think.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918the insider training.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918insider trading piece is extraordinarily susceptible. I mean, I mean, I don't wanna say anything. I'm gonna let you guys, because I'm a Republican, decide on a scale of one to 10, the ethical st sturdiness of the Trump administration and the people around him. I'll let you decide that, but, but could you actually imagine people around the President knowing what he's gonna do, betting in the production market? I couldn't imagine that as a Republican, but of course. You might imagine that, right.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919Imagine.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918probably a market for like, how many times will Donald Trump golf this weekend?
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Oh yeah.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918I mean, there's a,
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918of the questions
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918yeah, so I, I think I, I, I'm too much of a libertarian to say that we should ban the prediction market, but I would be supportive of guard guardrails. Like I would make it a, a. Insider trading on the prediction market should probably not be legal, right? If you, if you have a job in the federal government, in an in, in the administration and you bet on outcomes that should be a crime.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918That's a conflict of interest. At the very least.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918I mean, you
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919It's, it's a crime. It's a crime school. It's a crime. Yes.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918see if I'm a lawyer. Mr. Swalwell, thank you for hiring me. Before you resign, let's go ahead and take the money. You're gonna pay me, you're gonna pay me a lot, so let's go put it all on. You're gonna resign on the prediction market and then go ahead and resign, and then you've got money to pay me. I, I mean. mean, with all due respect, I'm not sure how ethical we could say somebody is who does what Swalwell did. I will tell you, by the way, and I get to take this license 'cause you guys are letting me, 55 former staff, people of a congressman, first of all, for his relatively short time in Congress, to have 55 former staff members tells you something, but for 55 staff members, former staff members, to sign a letter that basically was, we believe the girls. It's just overwhelming.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918have to tell you that when the, the, the first story came out. I thought, step back, let it unfold. What really made it legit?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918girls came out,
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Not only that, but for me, having been on political staff, it was the letter the former
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918right? Yeah. I haven't caught up to him yet, Josh Richmond, who for years was the reporter for the East Bay Times up there in that, or the Oakland Tribune, he's been the com. He was the comms director and I think he signed that letter. I just feel bad for all of them. And then, like I said, he blew up. And I think the, I think if I, if anybody wanted to take a takeaway from that, I don't care if you're a Republican, if you're a democrat. Now's the time to say, you know what? If you're hearing those kinds of rumors about somebody, 'cause nobody seems to be surprised.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919Why is it nobody was surprised. Why did all these rumors sort of circulate around political circles as they're called? Why was there all this gossip and, and, and nothing came of it? In other words, where was, was
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918See, bill,
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919the media?
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918asking the, you're asking the question that needs to be answered, but you're not asking it to anybody on this conference call. That's a question for the people that endorsed him. And by the way, there's another Republican who just resigned from Congress, or he is about to, who also had an affair before this woman, like lit herself on fire. Literally. Knew about that? I, there's a big problem and then I watched with interest when. And representative Luna out of Texas, who's a, she's a very MAGA member, but she had bipartisan support for her measure to say, let's, let's take off the secrecy over who's getting paid by Congress on these claims. the sexual harassment claims. Right. And we just watched it happen again where a significant majority of Congress said, no, we're gonna leave that secret. Right? And I wonder if she brings it back now because you could be sure the taxpayers are gonna be paying a lot of money to a lot of former staff people who are all gonna be filing litigation. And we'll see what happens. Anyways I did want to thank you both very much for having me on the show. It's you guys, know, when I got involved in politics, you guys were already a big deal and you're a big deal to me today, and it's literally an honor and a privilege. I,
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918don't worry, we'll invite you back here.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918No, that's all right.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919Here, John.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918Sheri, Sheri, you and I have always had a good relationship
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918yeah.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918and, but, but one of my favorite things about our relationship is that. All the time. When I was a activist with Young Americans for Freedom and climbing up through the ranks, right? I would often people would be like, you're friends with a, with people you don't agree with philosophically. And I would literally use you as an example of somebody who I was like, this is somebody that I would go to lunch with dinner with, see a movie with, and almost agree on nothing other than,
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918true.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918politically.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918I'm not sure it's true anymore
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918I, the Overton window has moved on me. I used to be the reliably most conservative voice out there in California. And because I'm not like a populist, I, I like a lot of the things Donald Trump has done, which makes me persona non grata with the people who hate Donald Trump. And there are things that Donald Trump has done that I don't like. I don't think his face should be on a, on a currency, right? But when I say that, then you lose the Maga people who tolerate no. Dissent from anything that he does. So over here from No Man's Land. I appreciate you guys having me on the show.
host-4ha0_1_04-15-2026_103919Anyway, hey, thanks for doing it and we'll invite you back more and more. Good, good talking to you, John.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918much for having me. I appreciate it.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918about us, and we'll have you on every other week.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918I'll do better than that. I'll share this link with my support, my subscribers so that they can maybe get a chance to check it out all hey, thank you very much for having me. I appreciate.
squadcaster-463j_2_04-15-2026_103918Here's the next time.
jon-fleischman_2_04-15-2026_103918To next time. All right,