Dems Save DA Gascon by Disqualifying Recall Signatures

BUCK: As you know, we’ve been all over the progressive prosecutor issue really for as long as we’ve been on air together because this has led to a massive increase. Lib, lunatic prosecutors who just think let criminals go free. The criminal justice system is racist. Just don’t even lock people up. Don’t even charge them. A hundred arrests? No big deal. Must have had a bad day, a hundred times in a row. That’s resulted in less safe cities. It’s resulted in more people being murdered, raped, robbed, assaulted. We all see it. We know it. The numbers all back it up. And some of the worst offenders in the progressive prosecutor pantheon are the former now DA of San Francisco, Chesa Boudin; Bragg, Alvin Bragg in New York City; Kim Foxx in Chicago; and Gascon of Los Angeles.

Now, there is a recall effort underway, has been a recall effort, I have to say, to get rid of Gascon in Los Angeles after the successful recall effort to get rid of Boudin in San Francisco. And, unfortunately, the recall effort has hit a little snag. Clay, there’s so much going on here. This is so interesting, isn’t it?

To get a recall measure on the ballot for the upcoming election, you needed to have for the petition — this is from the L.A. registrar — county registrar — 566,857 signatures. Now, they had over 700,000 signatures to recall Gascon. But we just find out today that only 520,050 signatures were found to be valid. 195,783 signatures they have said are invalid. I’ve seen the reasons. There’s all kinds of stuff, and we can get into some of what the basis is for — alleged basis — for removing these signatures may be. But, Clay, a lot of people reporting this up there right now. It’s really interesting.

What percentage of mail-in ballots in the 2020 election were rejected in Los Angeles County? Less than 1%. Basically none. What percentage of signatures to get this Gascon recall on the ballot were rejected? Almost 30%. It’s about mathematically a 60X when you add it all up. For every one signature from a mail-in ballot or from a mail-in ballot in general, for every one that was rejected in 2020, 60 signatures were rejected in the Gascon effort. I have a feeling at best here they decided to get a whole lot more strict with the rules when it was their guy who wanted the strict rules.

CLAY: Yeah. And also the idea of a written recall effort feels really antiquated to me in the modern era, right, where you’re sitting and looking at every single signature? And all of these, right, we had massive issues in Michigan with a lot of the people who wanted to be on the ballot in Michigan. Now, Tudor Dixon ended up being the nominee. I spent a lot of time up in Michigan and was talking to people about this. But they had a bunch of people that they thought were gonna be leading contenders for governor that weren’t able to get these signatures validated. It just seems like it’s messy, doesn’t it?

I mean, when you’re talking about almost 200,000 signatures being rejected, you’re almost to the point now where whatever ballot you’re trying to advocate for needs to get twice as many as the minimum number in order to feel like you even have a chance to get on the ballot itself. And getting Gascon out in LA is something that cuts across partisan lines in a substantial way, much like we saw what happened down in San Francisco with Chesa Boudin, and you didn’t mention him, but Philadelphia, I mean, we’ve talked a little bit about —

BUCK: Krasner. That’s the name I left out.

CLAY: Larry Krasner. If he feel is on pace right now for the deadliest and highest level shootings that have existed in the history of Philadelphia. And a lot of it is being pointed at Larry Krasner as the reason. And certainly if you’re listening to us in Los Angeles now, I’ve been fortunate gotten to spend a lot of time in L.A. over the years. I really like the city of Los Angeles. But, my goodness. The amount of health and safety and danger that has changed in the last decade in L.A. is pretty significant. And we haven’t talked much about it, Buck. But they’re having a big mayoral election in Los Angeles, and that’s really kind of being divided in many ways along political line they do not even both of the final two, if I remember correctly, are both Democrats.

One of them was a longtime Republican developer who is now saying, “Hey, I’m a Democrat as well.” Karen Bass is on one side. And what’s the guy who’s gonna beat Karen Bass hopefully? I mean, I think he’s the more rational and reasonable of the L.A. mayoral candidates and it would be a big win and he’s actually been endorsed by a lot of the people who are just fed up in Los Angeles with the collapse that they’ve seen there.

BUCK: There’s a big point of hypocrisy here as well because in the Gascon recall effort. Now, Gascon is up for reelection in 2024 anyway, and it is looking very unlikely that he will be reelected, ’cause even Democrats realize. Look, I think I sent you a photo of it this morning, Clay. I live in Midtown Manhattan. I live within a stone’s throw of Times Square right in the heart of the city, and I walk out any front door, and there are used needles and drug baggies 50 feet from the front door.

I mean, this is just what happens when you decriminalize open-air drug usage, when all of a sudden shooting up heroin in broad daylight in front of children on a crowded street is no big deal, you see a lot more of it, right? And when you don’t prosecute people that are gang — gang members and have, you know, multiple felonies already on the record, you don’t give them a stiff sentence, they end up shooting somebody. And that’s what’s happened in Krasner’s Philadelphia. Do you know there were 12 people who are shot Friday night alone in Philadelphia? You I know people say, well, some weekends there’s 30 or 40 shot in Chicago. Well, it’s one night. And Philly is a fraction the size of Chicago. Philadelphia is gonna end up having one of the highest murder rates in the entire country, and it all coincides with commie, lunatic Krasner being the prosecutor who comes in and just says, “Prosecuting criminals feels racist to me.”

Which, by the way, that sentiment, I would argue, is completely insane, right? Because what you’re effectively — what you’re claiming with all of this is that the disparate impact of prosecution, somehow you never take into effect the disparate impact on the communities where this violence is occurring. You know, are you going to side with the 99% of minorities who are law-abiding or the 1% in certain communities who are not law-abiding, right? But for Krasner it’s an easy decision. He’s made that decision. And this is what we see. We see it’s spiraling out of control.

CLAY: Well, let me clear this up too. The L.A. mayor race gonna come down Rick Caruso, who is a former developer, billionaire, and former Republican. And he’s going up against Karen Bass. So that’s the decision that L.A.’s going to have to make.

To your point on Philadelphia and the allegations Larry Krasner would toss out that policing is racist, I think you destroy that argument with one analogy. And I think it’s a good one that I would encourage everybody out there —

BUCK: My men and women violent thing?

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: Yeah. It’s true.

CLAY: As soon as you ask — somebody, okay, it’s racist. ‘Cause 50% people who are being arrested for violent crime are black and they only represent 12% of the population, whatever it is. Say, okay. Ninety-seven percent of the people that are being arrested for violent crime in America regularly, certainly well over 90% every community, you know what they are? Mail. Is it sexist that police waging War on Men by arresting men wildly higher percentages than their percentage of population?

BUCK: If you took the left-wing view on this, what’s the word — misogyny is hating women — no — is it mis — what’s the word for hating men? I’m blanking on it now —

CLAY: I don’t even know.

BUCK: There is a word. And I think it’s andro something or other. I’m forgetting right now. But, anyway, if you took the left-wing argument about criminal justice and race to apply it to gender, what you would — you go through all the same iterations. You say there are so many men who are in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. And women get off for murders all the time. This is what is often said, right?

CLAY: Misandry or misandry. I’m not sure how you pronounce it.

BUCK: Misandry? Okay. Yeah. And there are so many men who are in prison who are innocent and beyond that we should just let a lot of men who are murders out of prison because clearly it can’t be true that there are more men committing murders than women, therefore let’s just empty out the prison population of murderers and see what happens. That is the argument that the left has engaged in just with race instead of gender involved. And, you know, you saw this playing out with Krasner, you see this playing out with Gascon.

But just another thing, Clay, on the process, the recall process . They’re saying things like — I pulled this up so I could see exactly — the reasons they got rid of a lot of, folks, almost 200,000 signatures found to be invalid, right? Not registered, max number of times signed, different address. Different address. 32,000. That’s close to being the margin. You know how — you know there were thousands of people who voted in the wrong county in Georgia in the 2020 election and their votes were counted and they don’t seem to care?

Mollie Hemingway over at The Federalist has done excellent work on this. They just figure well, they basically should count because people’s votes should count so we’re just ignore it is rules. Notice the left becomes hyperfocused on ways to use integrity laws about elections or anything else when it’s to their advantage. And when it’s not to their advantage, those laws are racist.

CLAY: Yeah. And it’s systemic racism. Not just racism. Systemic racism. So I would ask all of you out there the next time you hear — maybe it’s your kids, maybe it’s your grandkids arguing the criminal justice system is systematically racist, just sit ’em down and say, “Is it also systematically sexist?” And then walk through that argument with them and see what their reaction is. Because a lot of times when people play the systemic racism card, they examine, because there is a fear and you’re racist if you question anything that has had to do with systemic racism allegations, just say you know what? In addition to the being systematically racist, I think our criminal justice system is systematically sexist because men are overwhelmingly going to prison, and it’s not fair. And just see what the reaction is. Why are police so sexist? Why are they consistently arresting men and not arresting women?

BUCK: And in order to balance things out in society, should we just arrest fewer men for violent crimes? Look, it’s not fair. Clearly men aren’t just committing more violent crimes than women, the argument goes. So we should just arrest fewer men for violent crime. This is the argument laid bare for everybody. So there you go. And what happens when you do that, by the way? There’s more crime. What a shock.