Speaker 1: You're listening to Bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
Speaker 1: six forty.
Speaker 2: It is a Wednesday morning, September eleventh, nine to eleven,
Speaker 2: twenty three years ago. Last night one of the most
Speaker 2: anticipated presidential debates that I can remember. And the politics,
Speaker 2: of course this year are insane, with Joe Biden dropping
Speaker 2: out because of well because he's falling apart because he
Speaker 2: got old very quickly as a matter of fact, and
Speaker 2: the main attack that the Republicans had against the opposing
Speaker 2: presidential candidate disappeared when Kamala Harris became the nominee. So
Speaker 2: last night the debate and what happened, well, I think
Speaker 2: Trump either misread Kamala Harris underestimated her, or he didn't
Speaker 2: do enough prepping because he never does and that's how
Speaker 2: he operates, or some p well they just don't prep.
Speaker 2: And also she baited him, she goaded him, and she
Speaker 2: got him.
Speaker 1: There's no question she.
Speaker 2: Got him his advisors and we knew this from the beginning.
Speaker 2: And the argument was going to be she was going
Speaker 2: to have him go down that rabbit hole, and he
Speaker 2: followed her all the way down. And it's and I
Speaker 2: don't care which side of the coin you are I
Speaker 2: don't care if on policy issues you are in favor
Speaker 2: of one or the other. It's impossible to say that
Speaker 2: Donald Trump did a good job unless you are an
Speaker 2: a vowed Trump follower.
Speaker 1: Where he literally could have just fallen off that stage.
Speaker 2: And oh my god, he fell off that stage purposely,
Speaker 2: And didn't he do a good job.
Speaker 1: She really cleaned his clock.
Speaker 2: They disagreed on abortion, the economy, immigration, the war in Ukraine.
Speaker 2: I mean, there is no question, and Kamalee Harris, I
Speaker 2: think and Donald Trump also said in his statement, this
Speaker 2: country has very clear choices. Which way is it going
Speaker 2: to go? And unfortunately for the Trump campaign, he did
Speaker 2: was was expected of him. He was She baited him,
Speaker 2: He grabbed that bait. He did a horrible job in
Speaker 2: defending his position. Even when he has some strength, he
Speaker 2: threw it away.
Speaker 1: She smiled, he glowered.
Speaker 2: I mean, he was just upset, and you could see
Speaker 2: on his face how unhappy he was.
Speaker 1: He spoke more. She dictated the terms wow.
Speaker 2: And she literally from day minute one, she dominated this
Speaker 2: whole thing. She laid the bait, he took it, and
Speaker 2: it began with her needling Trump that his board supporters
Speaker 2: had been leaving his rallies, and that continued on with
Speaker 2: inherited riches from riches from his dad and even and
Speaker 2: this is Harris saying, even those of that worked for
Speaker 2: you think you are horrible, and mentioned former chiefs of
Speaker 2: staff and advisors. And he took the bait. My people,
Speaker 2: when they go to my rallies don't go away. They stay.
Speaker 2: I have huge rallies. I've had the biggest rallies in the.
Speaker 1: History of the world.
Speaker 2: I mean, there was a lot of that, and I'm
Speaker 2: sure his advisors say, don't take that bait. Go to
Speaker 2: the issues. Go to the issues. Ignore that the size
Speaker 2: of rallies do not matter. People aren't bored.
Speaker 1: She even went so.
Speaker 2: Far and again this just got his goat looking at
Speaker 2: the camera and.
Speaker 1: Say, let me tell you what I'm going to ask
Speaker 1: you to do. And as go to a Trump rally.
Speaker 2: You go to a Trump rally, see how many people
Speaker 2: walk out, See how many people are bored. And of
Speaker 2: course did he take the bait. You bet he did.
Speaker 2: And that was all very planned out. She said, you
Speaker 2: will not hear him talk about your needs. You'll hear
Speaker 2: him talk about himself. And you know what he did.
Speaker 2: He talked about himself. I mean, whatever your policy issues are,
Speaker 2: why let her control the narrative. Take it away, go
Speaker 2: the other way, talk about policy. If he thought she
Speaker 2: was going to collapse the way Joe Biden did, it
Speaker 2: did not happen. And you could see, you can just
Speaker 2: see in your mind's eye his advisors their heads in
Speaker 2: their palms, just shaking their slap their foreheads, going, oh
Speaker 2: my god, look what happened. He talked about not what
Speaker 2: the voters need, but about voters numbers on the crazy side.
Speaker 2: And I think this is the one that really got
Speaker 2: sort of everybody. And her response she just laughs. I
Speaker 2: mean she spent a lot of time. You could see
Speaker 2: that rehearsing response, not verbally, but what she was going
Speaker 2: to look like, because they had the split screen most
Speaker 2: of the night. And he went right into immigrants are
Speaker 2: eating pets in Ohio.
Speaker 1: He went right down that hole.
Speaker 3: You know what.
Speaker 2: I'm surprised he didn't actually have a placard and it
Speaker 2: talked about recipes. Here is how you cook a cat.
Speaker 2: I think that's the only thing that was missing last night.
Speaker 2: I don't care which way you go on this politically,
Speaker 2: you have to admit she cleaned his clock. You know,
Speaker 2: it's not that she cleaned his clock, as he cleaned
Speaker 2: his own clock. He did everything wrong, and she got
Speaker 2: him on his playbook. As a matter of fact, she
Speaker 2: started saying, you're gonna hear the same old playbook.
Speaker 1: You're gonna hear the same grievances. You're gonna hear.
Speaker 2: The same lies. Okay, so what happened? Grievances?
Speaker 1: Lies?
Speaker 2: Of course fact checking. He had over thirty of them,
Speaker 2: she had one or two, and he was right, and
Speaker 2: the Republicans are right, she deflected. There were times when
Speaker 2: she wouldn't answer and when asked, but you were. You've
Speaker 2: changed your mind on fracking, back and forth, back and forth,
Speaker 2: and on the border.
Speaker 1: What happened. You wanted open borders.
Speaker 2: And now you want closed borders, and she deflected, I
Speaker 2: believe in fracking. I don't believe in open borders. Look
Speaker 2: what we have done the Biden Harris administration. But instead
Speaker 2: of calling her on that what ended up happening, He
Speaker 2: went down his old I have massive numbers of people
Speaker 2: at my rallies and then just I mean just really
Speaker 2: crazy stuff the immigrants eating dogs and cats that went
Speaker 2: around the internet with the crazies, and he glombed right
Speaker 2: onto that, and you shake your head and then just
Speaker 2: straight out accusations that made no sense. You're going to
Speaker 2: take away every gun in America. Of course she's never
Speaker 2: said that, and she came right.
Speaker 1: Back with I'm a gun owner. Tim Walls is a
Speaker 1: gun owner. I'm not going to take away our guns.
Speaker 2: Israel will cease to exist if she is president. It
Speaker 2: will be destroyed as a country. Really, she's an advocate
Speaker 2: of Israel, always has been, and the issue is how
Speaker 2: it's being handled.
Speaker 1: Gaza.
Speaker 2: The number of Palestinians that have died in Gaza now
Speaker 2: over forty thousand, So it's a little bit more nuanced
Speaker 2: than that. He got nailed on abortion. She's really clear
Speaker 2: on abortion. I mean from day one, he's gone back
Speaker 2: and forth, proud of the fact that Roe v. Wade
Speaker 2: was overturned, took full credit for it. Yet at the
Speaker 2: same time, when asked, would you pass a federal ban
Speaker 2: on abortion, he went from yes, to know it's a
Speaker 2: state issue, to sort of dancing around that. On in
Speaker 2: vitro fertilization. Oh my god, did he dance around that one.
Speaker 2: And that was a mistake because if he just outright
Speaker 2: said I am in favor of IVF.
Speaker 1: It is that simple.
Speaker 2: He did say, as a matter of fact, he went
Speaker 2: further than anybody. He said he wanted the government.
Speaker 1: To pay for IVF.
Speaker 2: Remember a couple of weeks always said that no Democrat
Speaker 2: has said that, short of maybe Bernie Sanders when he
Speaker 2: was drunk once and it.
Speaker 1: Was well at the bottom line, she needled him. He
Speaker 1: took it. She said, you're not going to hear what
Speaker 1: he can do for you. You're gonna hear about his grievances.
Speaker 2: Yep, he lost the election, it was rigged, Yep, all
Speaker 2: of the cases against him.
Speaker 1: She brought it up too.
Speaker 2: I mean, she brought up that he's a felon, that
Speaker 2: he's been convicted. And what he said is the DOJ
Speaker 2: has been weaponized all of these cases. And a lot
Speaker 2: of people believe that the DOJ has been weaponized. I
Speaker 2: don't think so, because the Biden administration and most administrations
Speaker 2: leave the Department of Justice alone. Man, that's independent. They
Speaker 2: don't They just don't get in the way. Richard Nixon
Speaker 2: certainly used the DOJ. You didn't see George Bush. You
Speaker 2: didn't see George H. W.
Speaker 1: Bush. You didn't see Bill Clinton. You certainly didn't see
Speaker 1: Barack Obama.
Speaker 2: Use the DOJ or the FBI as a weapon of
Speaker 2: as a method of weaponization. But I'll tell you what
Speaker 2: he also did, and again for anybody that really looks
Speaker 2: into it, he conflated the state and the federal that
Speaker 2: the Biden administration is weaponizing everything and implicitly said and
Speaker 2: he and Biden called the state and forced the state
Speaker 2: to go against him.
Speaker 1: Do you know if a president ever did that, ever
Speaker 1: did that?
Speaker 2: The first thing that any state official would say, mister president, Uh,
Speaker 2: this is not your jurisdiction, This isn't you okay, this
Speaker 2: is a state issue. I can't imagine any legitimate prosecutor
Speaker 2: or state official not saying that. The bottom line is,
Speaker 2: I think he blew it. Last night he had a
Speaker 2: shot on Afghanistan arguing that the Biden administration blew it
Speaker 2: on Afghanistan. And by the way, not too many people
Speaker 2: disagree with that, but he had taken on the defensive end.
Speaker 2: She went right after him, saying, you had the Taliban
Speaker 2: at Camp David. And he comes back with at some
Speaker 2: point and she's arguing, the authoritarians love him. He actually
Speaker 2: talked about how much Prime Minister Victor orbon Of Hungary
Speaker 2: thinks he's the greatest leader in the entire world. He
Speaker 2: told me I'm the greatest president that's ever lived, or
Speaker 2: something along those lines.
Speaker 1: Man, you know what.
Speaker 2: You've got stuff on here side, Donald Trump, you didn't
Speaker 2: use them last night. You did not use what you had.
Speaker 2: You fell into her trap very well rehearsed.
Speaker 1: Of course.
Speaker 2: I don't think there was a spontaneous moment that she had,
Speaker 2: not a one. She almost could have been reading off
Speaker 2: a teleprompter behind his shoulder. Well rehearsed, knew what she
Speaker 2: was saying, knew where she was going. You can see
Speaker 2: she practiced and practiced and practice, and she got him.
Speaker 2: She got him, and you will see. We'll see what
Speaker 2: the polling has to say. Now does that translate into votes?
Speaker 1: We don't know yet. We don't know.
Speaker 2: I think what also hurt Trump last night, maybe even
Speaker 2: more than her performance in his performance, is Taylor Swift.
Speaker 1: Came out and endorsed him.
Speaker 2: That is massive. So we'll see how that turns out.
Speaker 2: All right, Blake Trolley is at the Bridge fire in
Speaker 2: the ANGELUS National Force and this has become a monster.
Speaker 1: So what's the latest, Blake.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Well, this wildfire yesterday, Bill really exploded in growth.
Speaker 4: This fire yesterday morning was burning less than four thousand acres.
Speaker 4: It's now nearly reached fifty thousand acres, growing more than
Speaker 4: ten times its size. And we're told a lot of
Speaker 4: this growth happened yesterday afternoon. Yesterday when I was covering
Speaker 4: the Line fire, a red flag warning was issued for
Speaker 4: that fire because a wind gus that could hit twenty
Speaker 4: five miles an hour. Now, a similar red flag warning
Speaker 4: was also issued for the Bridge fire, which at the
Speaker 4: time was burning in the Mount Baldy Slash Rightwood area. Well,
Speaker 4: what we're told, and I'm trying to get an exact
Speaker 4: timeline of this, is that this fire really just took
Speaker 4: off blazing yesterday afternoon, again exploding more than ten times
Speaker 4: its size. Now, while the weather was a challenge, part
Speaker 4: of the challenge as well was the topography. I mean,
Speaker 4: if you look at Mount Baldy, this is a really
Speaker 4: steep high you know, rugged mountain, and a lot of
Speaker 4: the vegetation in there these are pine tree shrubs, chaparral.
Speaker 1: They haven't burned in years.
Speaker 4: So what you had was kind of this perfect storm
Speaker 4: event with winds kicking up. You had old and also
Speaker 4: very effective fire fuel all sitting in this fire's path,
Speaker 4: and when these winds picked up, this fire really exploded.
Speaker 4: Thirteen people have been injured, several homes have been destroyed.
Speaker 4: There's video all over social media. In some cases you
Speaker 4: see people trying to spread down their homes in a
Speaker 4: desperate attempt to save their homes. Other videos show homes
Speaker 4: both in Rightwood and Mount Baldy up in flames. I mean,
Speaker 4: this thing really came roaring through the Mountain. High Resort
Speaker 4: in Rightwood actually has cameras that are positioned throughout the
Speaker 4: resort and they kind of show you different shots of
Speaker 4: the mountain.
Speaker 1: A lot of ski resorts do this well. One of those.
Speaker 4: Cameras watched in real time as the ski lifts went
Speaker 4: up in flames. I saw videos last night of people
Speaker 4: being evacuated. Evacuation orders went out yesterday afternoon for Rightwood.
Speaker 4: But keep in mind, this was a very explosive fire,
Speaker 4: so both deputies and San Berardino County fire personnel had
Speaker 4: to get into the community of Rightwood. There was video
Speaker 4: of this as well, them rushing people out of these communities.
Speaker 4: So this fire, which really for a while was remaining
Speaker 4: somewhat calm, really exploded yesterday and is now the biggest
Speaker 4: and the most impactful fire burning here in southern California.
Speaker 2: It's just crazy as to what's happening watching these fires.
Speaker 2: It's almost as if why do they even bother? Because
Speaker 2: these things are roaring to such an extent that the
Speaker 2: Fire Department of various assets can't keep even close to
Speaker 2: dealing with it. And if they're burning in the wrong
Speaker 2: direction or the right direction as far as we're concerned,
Speaker 2: of course, away from communities, home structures, et cetera, you.
Speaker 1: Would think just let them burn out because you can't
Speaker 1: keep up with this.
Speaker 2: I mean, when they're going like this, is there any
Speaker 2: effective way of fighting this or slowing it down?
Speaker 4: I think in this case, this would have been a
Speaker 4: really hard one to stop. What I'm told is that
Speaker 4: when you look at the topography through Mount Baldy, these
Speaker 4: canyons that are covered in these old, dry and again
Speaker 4: old ponderosa pines, you know, big pines, and also just
Speaker 4: a lot of chaparral in the lower ele you know,
Speaker 4: or the lower parts of this of this vegetation, and
Speaker 4: you pair that with the shape of this canyon, I'm
Speaker 4: told this really just creates a vacuum and that this
Speaker 4: fire just came racing through the area yesterday afternoon and
Speaker 4: again we saw it spread into right wood very quickly,
Speaker 4: and yeah, this became a very dangerous situation. And as
Speaker 4: you say there, Bill, I mean, think about this. We've
Speaker 4: already had we already have a major fire burning in
Speaker 4: Orange County, a major fire burning in Samernardino County. Air
Speaker 4: resources on those I know last night they had requested
Speaker 4: air resources for this fire to come and help with
Speaker 4: structure defense. I'm also told that these air resources are
Speaker 4: trying to help kind of spot areas where they can
Speaker 4: put firefighters because they're trying to get them in and
Speaker 4: out of these areas that are really steep to try
Speaker 4: to fight this fire. So this is a really, I think,
Speaker 4: a really tough one. Just what I'm told is that
Speaker 4: it's really the topography in this area that has not
Speaker 4: only allowed this fire to grow, but really kept firefighters
Speaker 4: from making the progress they want to make.
Speaker 1: All right, Blake, thank you.
Speaker 2: I'm sure we're going to be talking you through with
Speaker 2: you throughout the morning as this thing progresses. Unfortunately, Blake
Speaker 2: Trolley Okay, if I's owned Blake Trolly there at the fire.
Speaker 2: All right, here's another story I'm gonna take away from
Speaker 2: fires for a moment, and that has to do with
Speaker 2: philanthropists are investing fifteen million dollars in local news because
Speaker 2: local news has effectively fallen apart, and it is something
Speaker 2: that we need and we don't have. And so what
Speaker 2: I'm doing, I'm asking Steve Gregory to join us only
Speaker 2: because well, because of his very long history of dealing
Speaker 2: with news, he's been a local reporter for many, many years.
Speaker 2: Steve based on this and the philanthropists are investing fifteen
Speaker 2: million dollars. And we're talking about the Eli broad Foundation,
Speaker 2: the American Journalism Project, the Spiegel Family Fund, all of
Speaker 2: these getting together and spending fifteen million bucks to augment
Speaker 2: to bring back local news. So, Steve, who by the way,
Speaker 2: is host of Unsolved Saturday Nights and on Sunday it's
Speaker 2: Studio six forty. Steve, let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 2: what you have experienced the demise of local news and
Speaker 2: news conferences and what coverage is now today.
Speaker 3: Well, I don't I wouldn't characterize it as the demise
Speaker 3: of local news because I think that local news is
Speaker 3: still being serviced. I think it's just being done differently.
Speaker 3: The reason that you don't see as many reporters in
Speaker 3: the streets anymore like we used to is because the
Speaker 3: cell phone, the smartphone has sort of replaced the reporter,
Speaker 3: and that means that there are less opportunities for reporters
Speaker 3: to go to do things because they don't need to
Speaker 3: do And in this particular case, investing in local news,
Speaker 3: I was a little baffled because the article that you
Speaker 3: sent me for reference material, if you look at the
Speaker 3: partnerships that they're creating with the local MPR affiliate and
Speaker 3: a former editor with the LA Times and other organizations,
Speaker 3: the thing that really caught my attention is that they
Speaker 3: want to bring unbiased, factual and objective reporting to underserved communities.
Speaker 3: And I thought to myself, well, that's not happening already.
Speaker 3: What do you think. I think that's a disingenuous statement.
Speaker 2: Well, here was my take, and the reason I brought
Speaker 2: this in line is because to your point, because of
Speaker 2: cell phones, you don't need that many reporters. And when
Speaker 2: you talk about unbiased news reporting, you know, it's kind
Speaker 2: of hard to argue that that there number one isn't
Speaker 2: biased across the board. I know here kfire reporters tend
Speaker 2: to be as unbiased as possible. But you know, consider
Speaker 2: you've complained about this, we are just stretched thin, far
Speaker 2: more than we ever have been as far as my
Speaker 2: knowledge and my experience is concerned. You don't think that
Speaker 2: there is a need to expand on local news reporting.
Speaker 3: No, there is a need to expand on local news reporting.
Speaker 3: The money needs to go to more people. And I
Speaker 3: believe that this initiative that you're talking about said it
Speaker 3: could hire up to twelve new reporters to spread out
Speaker 3: in these local groups. I think one of the best
Speaker 3: examples of local journalism was Patch. You remember the Patch No,
Speaker 3: that's where Yeah, so that I think people that listening
Speaker 3: that are listening to know that there were these Patch
Speaker 3: reporters that would live in the communities and they had
Speaker 3: it broken up into quadrants, and those Patch reporters had
Speaker 3: to live in the communities in which they reported on
Speaker 3: and I would see them at a lot of different
Speaker 3: press conferences. But unfortunately that business model fizzled. But that
Speaker 3: was the classic example of community journalism. But what I'm
Speaker 3: concerned about here, and toil your point, yes, I think
Speaker 3: there's a need for more local journalism. But it's in
Speaker 3: the need of like, instead of layoffs, put the money
Speaker 3: into the existing news organizations. But the argument here is
Speaker 3: some of these smaller communities feel like they want their
Speaker 3: own stories told. Great, that's fine, put the money into
Speaker 3: those and let it and let it sort of organically grow.
Speaker 3: My concern, what my concern was, is that the organizations
Speaker 3: behind it have a political bent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, and when when I looked at
Speaker 2: this articles, it was just take a take off on uh,
Speaker 2: And why I wanted to bring you aboard is just
Speaker 2: the changes in local news. Sure, how local news has
Speaker 2: become I think less important because of you've got well
Speaker 2: frankly because you have a cable, et cetera. And the
Speaker 2: big news stories completely override the local news. Now we've
Speaker 2: got three reporters out with the fires. We've got Blake Trolley,
Speaker 2: we got Michael Monk, we have Corbyn Carson. Is there
Speaker 2: any other radio station in southern California that would have
Speaker 2: three reporters out there? And I'm not saying this because
Speaker 2: I'm proud of what we are, Uh, it's certainly any
Speaker 2: other news talk station Do they do that the way
Speaker 2: we do?
Speaker 3: Yes? In fact, that there are two other radio stations
Speaker 3: that I can tell you right now that have reporters
Speaker 3: at all the fires as well, and the local CBS
Speaker 3: radio affiliate and the local and PR affiliate both have
Speaker 3: reporters of the fires. That's that's standard procedure. But I
Speaker 3: think what you're experiencing is that the shortage and reporters
Speaker 3: is due to a couple of things. Funding, smartphones and
Speaker 3: people's attention span. They don't want a lot of people
Speaker 3: don't have the time to read and listen and dig
Speaker 3: deep like they used to. They like headlines. Now the
Speaker 3: attention spans are much shorter.
Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: And by the way, when I'm going in a direction,
Speaker 2: and even if I'm wrong, you have to say, yes, Bill,
Speaker 2: I understand, You're absolutely right.
Speaker 3: Okay, what is the direct one you're talking about?
Speaker 2: This segment did not go the way I wanted it
Speaker 2: to go. Okay, just to let you know, are there
Speaker 2: any other radio stations, because I don't think so that
Speaker 2: have a Blake, Michael and a Corbin out there reporting
Speaker 2: on the three fires. Your point was, say no, Bill,
Speaker 2: only KFI does.
Speaker 3: Well, then that would be a falsehood. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yeah, come on, it's my show. Come on,
Speaker 2: you know, I bring you a board to back me up, Steve,
Speaker 2: for God's sake.
Speaker 3: Well, well then then cut me that way.
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, you're right, you know what, And yeah, you
Speaker 2: screwed this one up.
Speaker 1: You didn't.
Speaker 2: You did not tell him that he was there to
Speaker 2: back up my point, right or wrong?
Speaker 3: All I got. All I got was a link.
Speaker 1: Okay, got it, I'll understand, talk about it.
Speaker 2: No. But the point, you know, But the point I'm making,
Speaker 2: I think inevitably you went to the right place where
Speaker 2: I wanted to go, not as well as you did, uh,
Speaker 2: is that local news is not as important.
Speaker 1: And I'm looking at the demise of that, having been behind.
Speaker 2: This mic for thirty something years, and you know, it's
Speaker 2: not the same, and it's not going the way I
Speaker 2: think it should.
Speaker 1: It's for the worst.
Speaker 3: Well, I agree, Bill, And there is a problem right
Speaker 3: now covering local news because there are fewer people doing it.
Speaker 3: And so when I look at these these initiatives to
Speaker 3: put money in, like we haven't even talked about Google,
Speaker 3: remember that that settlement with Google in the state of California,
Speaker 3: And now they're going to put money in a bunch
Speaker 3: of local journalism too, but they're doing that without any
Speaker 3: input from journalism groups, which is odd to me. But
Speaker 3: I think the bigger picture here is that people's appetite
Speaker 3: for news has changed. Yeah, and then I think the
Speaker 3: model has had to adjust to that.
Speaker 2: Fair enough, We'll do more about this because I go
Speaker 2: to you because you've been around for a very long
Speaker 2: time also, and I love these discussions, Steve.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Saturday night. That'll a good weekend, all right,
Speaker 1: you two. And then on Sunday it's Studio sixty six forty.
Speaker 2: This is KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the
Speaker 2: iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1: You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2: Catch my Show Monday through Friday six am to nine am,
Speaker 2: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.