Mike Rowe: On How Working People are Getting Hurt in California

Mike Rowe is here. Mike Rowe has got the Mike Rowe Works Foundation.

He's a host and narrator, executive producer of How America Works on Fox Business. Do you have a brand new season coming out? Beats me, man. That's all on a need-to-know basis, and I just do not need to know it. But I do.

I know you do, and you know I wouldn't keep it from you if I knew. It's just that what I've learned is there's no extra credit for knowing things further in advance. Right, and if you can't get money or credit or school credit or anything. That's right, and also blame lives right alongside credit. Which means if you know it and forget it. If you want the credit in a show, for instance, you want to see your name up there in the credits, you also have to assume that there's going to be a part of the program that assigns blame. Right. So if you don't want the credit, then maybe you just let it go in exchange for not getting the blame and vice versa.

The next micro book? No one ever told me. No one told me. I simply didn't know. Didn't know. I didn't know.

By micro. We joke about it, but it's the truth. I'm sitting here, I'm listening to you talk about all the trouble in the world.

I'm looking at these monitors. I should have got to the positive. Well, look, the news is the news, and people need to know all of this stuff. But man, I do worry about the exponential effect.

I mean, because I feel it in me. Like when I look at sanctuary cities that are clearly caught in the web of their own hypocrisy. None bigger than the one you're in. When I look at, he's referring to San Francisco, which technically I moved from a few years ago. I was talking about this one, New York City, but I didn't know you live in San Francisco.

Well, I've been there for 20 years, but I left the city about eight years ago. I can still see it. But people are not imagining these things. You know, there's an unraveling.

You can feel it. And I think it has a lot to do with the lack of consequence. And if you show people cause without effect, if you show people action without consequence long enough, they'll start to conclude quite sanely that the wheels have come off the bus. And I look, this is all anecdotal. I don't have any science. I don't have any studies, but I can feel it. Well, I mean, there's a couple of things that you talk about a consequence.

So for example, you have a Florida governor talking about politics, who's got a great report card. People say, well, you know, he's a little cold. Okay. Okay.

He's not a great one-on-one. Really? Okay.

Let's follow me. Gavin Newsom, what a warm guy. He's got great charisma, great, great hair. Look at the way he holds himself, goes out and feels people's pain, puts on a windbreaker and rake sleeves. And he's out there.

He's such a superstar. He's going to help the president get elected. What's the problem with Gavin Newsom?

I have it in my notes. Okay. Everything. San Francisco mayor destroyed the city, like crime run rampant, sanctuary city status. We all know what goes on there.

Just look at it. You be the judge, you make the call, but don't, by the way, don't expect to see the Raiders playing in the Oakland area because they left. Don't expect the athletics to play there. They're left and no, and everyone's like, I don't blame you. And then you walk through Los Angeles overridden with homeless taxes through the roof.

Do you have this beautiful state that is without par in the country, I would say with more diversity in terms of the topography and ocean views and people leaving for the first time in my lifetime. So yet that guy's looked at as a superstar. You talk about lack of consequence, flip over his baseball card. His batting average is terrible. Why is he a superstar?

Because he's got great gel. The same reason that an entire town turned out and Hans Christian Anderson's great story, the emperor's new clothes, the entire town turned out as the emperor who was naked, but told by his tailors that he was in fact wearing some really truly beautiful garb went on a parade and the town, for whatever reason, went along with the illusion that the emperor had some fantastic clothes on. And so they stood and they applauded. They knew they were looking at something that wasn't real. And yet they were still caught up in that moment where they weren't going to acknowledge it. It took a child. It took a kid in the crowd to go, hey, hey, I can see his twigs and berries.

Hey, that guy's done have any clothes on. And then just like you are now, the crowd started to nod and then new voices popped up. Look, I don't know when the moment is or who the kid is going to be in my metaphorical crowd, but I do but I do remember years ago saying to maybe you or I don't know who I was talking to, but that photo of the governor having dinner in the French Laundry right on the heels of saying no one should do this exact thing that left millions of people who I believe and I'm very friendly with a lot of people who would vote for him tomorrow. It left those people with a level of cognitive dissonance that was simply undeniable.

They had to square it. And look, the rest of us can sit back and say, OK, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. Say something that makes that OK. Say something that makes a sanctuary city who is now begging for help. Tell me something that makes it OK. I'm open to hear it.

But the evidence demands a verdict. And a lot of people are looking around right now and saying, tell me how it's OK that those migrants who beat up that cop are out. I'll listen. I'm keen to hear how it's OK. Reasonable, persuadable people, Brian. That's who I want to talk to.

And I don't know if any listen to this radio show. I mean, I mean, I say it with respect, but who out there right now is still persuadable and who is able to hear something from either side, from the other side that makes them go, hmm, OK. You know what? I think we're at the point now it's so much right and wrong rather than right and left.

I really believe we're at that point because there's no nuance. For example, when Trump came out and says, we're going to get rid of sanctuary cities. And I thought New York and Chicago right away.

I didn't really know how many city. I couldn't believe how many there were. So what happened is they go, how dare you? You don't like migrants.

You just like minorities. And they sued back. And they know we're going to get rid of the suit. But the back and forth, the courts win.

Of course, because they can keep it, even though it seems fundamentally unconstitutional, not a lawyer. All right. You bring that up in 2024 down and you say, get rid of those sanctuary cities. I watched the video in Chicago of urban dwellers show up in Chicago in order to be able to tell the city council, I want to get rid of sanctuary city status because in my working class neighborhood urban environment, I've been overwhelmed, overwhelmed with shelters. My schools that were promised as recreation centers at night are now shelters for for illegal immigrants.

My fields are taken up with 10 cities. My kids have nowhere to play. So that is not a right or left situation. That's a right or wrong. And that's why I think we're in the right and wrong period in our country. Look, and that's there's not much to say other than the evidence demands a verdict and the people need to see the evidence of policies.

We need to see what happens if we remove the consequences for shoplifting a thousand dollars worth of stuff. We need to see it. And then we know there is none. OK. And we need to. Well, how's that going?

Well, I mean, actually, that's not true. There are consequences. Walgreens closes. Macy's closes. Stores leave. Jobs go gone.

Businesses leave. All of these things happen. Those are the consequences that I'm talking about. The problem is, if we point to them as a partisan on either side, then the other side will conclude exactly as you just said. They'll they'll make an argument for his hair. They'll make an argument for his looks. They'll make an argument for somebody's electability separate and apart from the policies they embraced.

And so we're being in some ways, I'm afraid, reduced to a very one dimensional kind of analytical species where all we're really able to do is look at the surface of the thing. Right. And then make some sort of prognostication.

See, this is why I'm more optimistic, maybe more practical than micro. When you put those policies in place. Yeah. There was one side that said, if this happens and you permit nine hundred ninety nine dollars worth of shoplifting, if you permit a lack of consequences in a dial down of consequences when it comes to crime, that CVS will close and your retort would have been no, it won't be fine. They can afford it.

That's all built in. It's OK. That's an insurance. OK, fine. Well, guess what happened?

The minute that CVS closed and the Walgreens closed and the schools closed and the population went down, the representation of California went down, the gavel went down. The debate is over. We already saw the consequences.

The question is, do you want more of that? Can you live if it happens? I'm leaving.

Can you? And they left. Did it impact you?

Right. So all politics is personal and every all these consequences we're talking about comes right down to the are you affected? My dad had a heart attack right after Christmas. He was in an emergency room. It was overrun.

He waited for hours. Suddenly, I'm very interested in why the emergency room is overrun. I knew it was overrun two days earlier and I know it's overrun today. But in that moment of crisis, it impacted me. And suddenly Mike Rowe gives a damn about health care like real hard. You know, that's happening to everybody on a thousand different issues. And I wish I could say this in a way that didn't immediately redound to right versus left. But with regard to consequences, forget the politics for a minute. I I think for me that I worry about all of the unintended consequences virtually all of the time on virtually every topic. And politically, I wish there were a way to distill this. Pick a topic.

Minimum wage. All right. Do I want to see people prosper? Yes. Do I want to see people treated fairly? Of course.

Do I think it's a good idea to guarantee 20 bucks at a minimum? I really don't. And it's not because I don't like those people and it's not because I don't want them to climb the ladder. It's because I know exactly what's going to happen in a McDonald's. If you do that, I know the cost of the Big Mac is going to go through the roof. And more importantly, Brian, I know the people whose entry level jobs depend on that transaction.

Those jobs are going to be eliminated. And it's happening. It's happening in movie theaters.

It's happening on Tuesdays. I had to. You don't see a waitress. You actually. Yeah, they're gone.

They're gone. Rent control. I don't want to see people thrown out of their homes. I don't want greedy, rapacious landlords to be able to run amok without consequence and abuse their their tenants.

No one wants that. But what do you think is going to happen if you forbid the landlord from adjusting the rent to reflect the reality of the market? You're going to have slums. You're going to have people.

They're never going to leave. So on every issue, every issue, the only question I always ask myself is, what's this going to do a year or two down the road? And if we don't have the patience to genuinely try and answer that, then I'm afraid we're still going to have.

We're going to be having the same conversation. A couple of things that happened. We got down the road on a lot of these issues. We went down the road.

And my question is, are you going to pull off the road? And that's what I think is happening. For example, the best example, and I thought you were going to go to it, was when the governor of the governor of Texas started saying, if anybody wants to go to a major city, I'm going to give you a bus ride. And they started doing it. You got about 100,000, maybe more, people going to Denver, Chicago, New York, and D.C. And suddenly, what Texas was complaining about was felt in New York and those in New York, Chicago, D.C., and Philadelphia, and maybe in San Francisco and Los Angeles because of their governor, who was always okay with that. Now he's giving them free health care, by the way. Nuts.

So now it is your problem. And now you're going to visit sanctuary cities. And now you're, I interviewed over the weekend two Democratic voters who were in Chicago and they were active in their community and they were all excited because the school that had to close down was going to be a rec center for their kids. Then they were told there was no money to convert it. And all of a sudden the money flowed in. They started rehabbing. They thought it was going to be the rec center.

You know what it was? A migrant center. Where did the money come from?

The state and the city. To convert it to a migrant center. And they go, wait a second, I thought there was no money for a rec center. He goes, no, it's a migrant center.

So income these people, they don't know anything about. They've totally changed the texture of the neighborhood. And they still don't have a rec center. And these two Democrats on with me on Saturday just said, this has got to stop. We got down the road. We hit a dead end. Now you're going to turn around. You're going to fix it. You're going to complain about it. But if you care about your life, you're going to get involved. And I think when it comes up again, you're going to say, I'm not happy. I am going to get rid of that sanctuary city.

I am going to put that wall up. I think it's important to have legitimate asylum claims, but not the ones with now. I mean, you watch that video this morning in New York City that happened on Saturday. You see 20-year-old men, single men, confiding age in their country, who said they were too scared or sought asylum. It is assumed they had to come to our country. And they're brawling with each other.

When our cops show up, they beat up our cops. Why are they still here? There is no flip side to that argument.

No, there's not. And it's fair to ask that question. And it's fair to have the people who support those policies give an answer. In fact, it's imperative. Put them on the spot.

The evidence demands a verdict. And I get it. When you have those kinds of visuals, you have to run with them.

It would be irresponsible not to. But still, it's the splat factor. Until it hits you personally, until you're married to one of those cops who got kicked in the head, then the degree of your involvement will vary, right?

So it's going to go splat for everybody eventually. I'm getting the one-minute cube. He's so experienced, Eric, you could actually tell Mike Rowe, too. Oh, yeah. I know what a minute is. Believe me. Believe me. I know what a minute is. I don't know what that means.

Back in a moment. So that is Sean Fain, who's a big-time union leader, who said, I'm endorsing and we're endorsing. The UAW is going to endorse Joe Biden. We made him work for it.

But he says, no doubt about it. A lot of people are going to vote for Donald Trump. Something happened in our lifetime, Mike Rowe. It seems like actually within eight years, suddenly the white-collar party is the blue-collar party Republicans.

And the guy that brought it is the so-called billionaire, Donald Trump, who relates to the blue-collar born the white-collar. Your thoughts? Well, it's what I said. He's saying it.

I mean, I wish we could actually have a conversation about that separate from politics only because the language is so fascinating. Up is down, right is left, blue is white, right? Everything. You're right. I don't know how or when it shifted, but it all has. And when I was listening to that, I was thinking of another horrible law. I don't know if you're up to speed on AB5 and what's going on right now. It's basically the war on jobbers and freelancing and the gig economy, right? Uber drivers. Uber drivers, but truck drivers. I mean, you got 50,000 independent truck drivers who suddenly lost their living as a result of this thing. And it's going before Congress, I think in March. It's really coming up and these guys are pushing hard for it. And when you eliminate freelance, when you eliminate the gig, man, I mean, that's going right at the pick line of the country. We got to pay attention to it. Listen to this show ad free on Fox news podcast, plus on Apple podcast,