'BradCast' 6/8/2026 (Trump Rails Against CA Elections, Presents No Evidence of Fraud)

That's not evidence. Do you think it's appropriate? That's how they count the votes in California. Do you think it's appropriate that they have an election and five days later they're nowhere close to pick it in one? State and local officials acknowledge they are slow. They're urging. No, they're crooked. They're urging the votes to be counted quickly. That's how they vote in California. They're crooked just like you're crooked. Your press is crooked and meet the press is crooked. To be fair, I'm not crooked. But let's really, when you play right into their hands in. Let's continue. You're either crooked or you're stupid. Well, Somebody there is crooked and stupid. But I don't know if it's Kristen Welker. We'll see. Well, I don't know why I came here tonight. I got the feeling that something right. I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair. And I'm wondering how I'll get down the stairs. Clowns to let me joke. From Pacific Radio in Los Angeles, this is the broadcast. As heard on KPFK, 90.7 FM in LA, 98.7 in Santa Barbara, 93.7 in San Diego, 99.5 FM in Ridgecrest and China Lake. Elsewhere in California, in Red Bluff and Redding on KFOI and Round Mountains, KKRN. Up in Oregon on the Central Coast on K-Y-A-Q, Cottage Groves, K-So, Eugene's, K-E-P-W, Lanchester, Pennsylvania's W News, Maui, Hawaii's K-A-KU, in Columbus, Ohio on W-G-R-N, Palinville, New York, Rochester, New York, WR-FZ, Down in New Orleans, on WHIV, out in Gallup, New Mexico, on K-N-I-Z. Concord, New Hampshire's WNHN, Fayetteville, Arkansas, KPSQ, in Seattle on KODX, Richmond, Virginia's WR, W-R-W-K, Fairmont, West Virginia's W-E-FR, Jamesville, Wisconsin's W-A-DR, and Minneapolis, St. Paul's, AM-950, K-TNF. We also stream coast to coast and around the globe every day on the Internet, so the Progressive Voices channel, Netroots Radio, Radio for Humans, Nicole Sandler.com, radio-free Brooklyn, No Lies, Radio, Detour Talk, Del Marva FM, and most, if not all, of your favorite podcast sites, Blanketing Planet Earth. I'm Brad Friedman, your friendly investigative blogger, journalist, troublemaker, muckraker. And all around, swell fellow, says me from bradblog.com. Thank you very much for joining us today. Welcome to another thrilling edition of the Bradcast, never crooked nor stupid. In fact, welcome to another thrilling week of the broadcast, as it is now another big election week this week with primary voters taking to the polls in four states on Tuesday, including Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Maine, where the race for U.S. Senate is receiving a lot of attention this week.

For at least two reasons. One is that five-term Republican U.S. Senator Susan Collins is up for re-election this year, and she is a top target for Democrats in their quest to retake a majority in the U.S. Senate. A quest that just a few months ago seemed to be an incredibly long shot, but seems to be getting more possible by the day. But one major element... of that hoped for takeover by Democrats is in fact flipping the seat held by Susan Collins, who has been a top supporter of both most of Donald Trump's initiatives and, as importantly, perhaps more so, his high-profile nominations, including the Supreme Court, where Susan Collins was the deciding vote in the Republican's successful effort to ram through the nomination of now Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Despite several credible allegations of sexual misconduct against him and evidence of blatant lies that he told under oath to the Senate during his confirmation hearings, Democrats have been quite keen to flip Susan Collins' seat in Maine for some time, though she has proven remarkably resilient among Maine voters. This year, however, Dems... hope anyway that it will be different, especially after the state began rallying around progressive, populist, political outsider, former veteran, and oyster farmer Democrat Graham Platner, who has really taken the state by storm, overcome in the bargain and attempt by the Democratic establishment, particularly in D.C. to boost Maine's Democratic governor, Janet Mills, for the U.S. Senate nomination, only to see her crash and burn during the long primary campaign season as Graham Platner was just barnstorming the state. During that time, as you may have heard, a number of controversies have arisen about Graham Platner, including the unearthing of a whole bunch of social media posts from some years ago that were, to say the least, politically incorrect. for a 26 Democratic Senate candidate in any event, which Graham Platner has chalked up to his earlier problems in life with alcohol and PTSD after his time serving four tours of duty for both U.S. Marines and National Guard in both Iraq and Afghanistan, that he has not run away from in the campaign as part of his compelling story of redemption. Also, the news that Graham Platner had a tattoo from his service days of a particular skull and bones considered to be a Nazi symbol, which Graham Platner claims he did not know, he didn't realize, and has since covered it up, as well as a number of allegations of private sexual misconduct, if it can even be described as such, including one woman, the New York Times reported late last week, described herself as a former girlfriend of Platiners, claiming that he was... rough but not violent with her at times, did not physically hurt her? Is that sound like an accurate description to you, Desidoyan? Yes, I would say so. For his part, Graham Platner disputed any charges that he was ever physically violent or physically hurt any girlfriend or that he knew anything about his Nazi tattoo, noting that anybody who claims otherwise is...

If we had the same number of senators and electoral college votes to go with them here in California as the two Dakotas enjoy per capita, well, California would have. Any idea, Desi Doyen, how many U.S. senators that would be? No. 93 U.S. senators for California if we had the same representation they do in the Dakotas. And yes, that many presidential electoral college votes to go with them. 93 senators. if we had that same representation as the decode as that, even though there are currently only 100 U.S. senators in total, by the way, under the current system. But once again, I digress. Pet peeve, though one worth keeping in mind when you hear Republicans falsely whining, lying about how the electoral college is somehow rigged against them. Also worth keeping in mind when it comes to the number of voters in California and the time that it takes to count those votes when they are specifically by mail and require the careful opening and verification and validation of each vote by hand across the entire state of 40 million people. And to that end... Before we even get to Tuesday's elections this week in four states, including Maine, we are still not done with elections out of California from last Tuesday, in particular when it comes to two races that have gained national attention this year. One, excuse me, the contest to fill the seat being vacated by California's termed out Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, and the other here in Los Angeles in the re-election contest for Democratic mayor, Karen Bass, who is seeking a second term in office. Now, we have seen some movement in both of those contests since we last spoke to you on this program late last week. I mean, the very slow, very slow and careful counting of mostly mail ballots across the state where we choose here to get it right, hopefully, rather than get it fast in hopes of respecting the right to vote and including as many legal voters as possible, including any voter who mailed out a ballot postmarked. as having been cast and sent on or before election day, which are then allowed to come in and be counted for up to seven days after the election. So in theory, votes are still coming in.

In those races, I believe, much less being painstakingly counted by election officials in the state's 58 counties and the 52 U.S. House districts, each of which had a primary as well last Tuesday. Each county itself has 30 days before their totals need to be certified and sent to the state. And just a reminder when it comes to vote by mail, the whole reason of allowing a seven-day grace period for ballots to a... arrive is because it's not the voter's fault if the post office is slow in delivering their ballot. So it does give them, you know, it's sort of treating a legal vote as it should be treated with respect. Correct. Now, I know some of you have been conned to think otherwise, and if so, I'd love to hear from 818, 985-5735. But yeah, in a county like L.A. County, the most populous in the nation, which has by itself. LA County has more voters than 40 of the 50 states in this one county alone. So yeah, it takes time to tally the votes. Imagine if there was one central headquarters that counted 40 votes every, 40 states votes every year in one single place. But the same is true for almost every county across the state. There's just a lot of votes to count. To that end, we had news in both the L.A. City mayoral contest and the California governor's race over the weekend and into today. In both of the contests where all candidates of all parties run on the same ballot with the top two vote getters of any party going on to compete in the November election. So let's start here in the city of Los Angeles, where we are, where Mayor Karen Bass. clinched her spot on the general election ballot for November as of election night, that according to media calling the race in any event. When media calls the race, it's informal. It's not an actual official certification, but media called it for Karen Bass last Tuesday that she would, in fact, go on to the runoff in November. But the second... contestant for that second slot. That has been closely watched ever since with Trumpy Republican and former reality TV villain Spencer Pratt holding the second spot over LA City Councilwoman and former Karen Bass ally, Nithya Raman, who was in a fairly distant third in the early counts the days following last Tuesday's election. But this year, As Democrats had reason to hold their ballots for governor until the very last second, I'll get to that in a moment. Later arriving ballots were believed to favor more progressive Democratic candidates. And indeed, over the weekend, Nithya Raman finally overtook Spencer Pratt in those still ongoing tallies. As of the... latest reported results. This is from Sunday night. At this point, basically the counties seem to do just one update per day.

But as of the latest on Sunday night with then a little bit more than 83% of the estimated votes tallied here in Los Angeles, Democrat Karen Bass was leading with nearly 35% of the vote, followed by Democrat Nithya Raman at just over 27%. And Spencer Pratt, now in third place, behind her, by a little bit less than half a percent. If that trend... that we've seen over the last couple of days continues. Republicans will, in fact, be shut out of the November general election ballot for mayor in Los Angeles, a city which is overwhelmingly Democratic. Only 24% of L.A. voted for Donald Trump in 2024. But that is the way our top two elections work in this state, at least for now. But with an estimated 146,000 votes estimated as left to tally in Los Angeles, there's still time for things to change in those second and third slots. So as of this hour, the race has not yet been called there for Nithya Raman. to be the second person on the ballot. But it's looking good for her, setting up what is likely to be a brutal contest between two local dems in a race that are sure to be, the race sure to be categorized as sort of the old guard Democrats versus a younger, more progressive party. That's not entirely a fair characterization of the race. If that... if that's the one that happens, in that Karen Bass is also fairly progressive and indeed was endorsed by Nithya Raman herself this year before Rahman decided to enter the race herself. Nonetheless, Republicans are just furious beside themselves right now that they may be cut out entirely from the November ballot, which I will get to in a moment, though Republicans were... In favor of the ballot measure some years ago, that led us to the top two situation that we have in our primaries. If folks listening live here in Los Angeles want to ring in on that election, the mayoral race, of course, still being counted. I'd love to hear from you as well. At 818-985-5735, do you think Nithya Raman is going to hold on to that second place spot? It appears that she will, based on the votes over the last couple of days. And if so, who are you calling? Who are you supporting in this race of Karen Bass versus Nithya Raman? In the California gubernatorial contest where more than 60 candidates were running for the top two slots last Tuesday with just over 72 percent of the estimated vote now in. Former California Attorney General, Congress member, and Joe Biden, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, was called by the media as having secured a spot on the November general election ballot with just over 27% of the vote. Xavier Becerra took over Trump-induced Republican Fox News host Steve Hilton for the top slot.

Friday, late on Friday with Hilton, just over a point right now behind Xavier Becerra in the latest numbers at just under 26 percent with Xavier Becerra at 27, followed by progressive billionaire activist, Tom Steyer, at 21.5 percent. Still about four and a half points or so behind Hilton, but with more than two and a half million votes. Two and a half million votes still being tallied across the state, which is more than any of the three top vote getters for governor has so far been credited with. So there's more votes out than any single candidate currently has. With all of that, there is still potential for room. for Tom Steyer to pick up a lot of late incoming votes, given that, as noted, many Democrats waited until very late in the process to cast their vote, while there was no consensus for a frontrunner for much of the race, unusually enough. At least until very late in the process, while Republicans were celebrating for weeks the possibility that the split support among 24 Democrats on the primary ballot might allow two Republicans, Hilton and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco, to shut out all of the Democrats from the November ballot. in the otherwise very blue state registered democrats here in california outnumber republicans by two to one, even if California has more registered Republicans in this state than in any other. Wait, just say that one more time. California has more registered Republicans in this one state than any other state in the U.S. So keep it in mind the next time Donald Trump is withholding disaster money from California because, oh, he doesn't like the Democratic governor. What he's doing is screwing over. More people voted for Republican, For Donald Trump, more Republicans voted for Donald Trump in California back in 2024 than in any other state. So, sure, punish your own people like that. Trump makes a lot of sense. As a Friday with the media calling the top slot for Xavier Becerra, and if those actual tallies hold up, well, the concern about a Democratic shutout would seem to be behind us this fall. And now the question is whether late voters who thought Xavier Becerra's late move into the top slot before Election Day, who saw that and thought that it gave them freedom to vote for the more progressive candidate, Tom Steyer, who's been a bulldog in taking on.

corporations such as the fossil fuel industry. He's called for increased taxes on both those corporations and on billionaires like himself. Seems to me like a heavy lift for started to come from four and a half points behind the Republican Steve Hilton. Then again, it seemed like a heavy lift for Rahman to come from third place to overtake Spencer Pratt in the mayoral contest in L.A. So we will see, after all the votes are actually, you know, counted. At least by computers, well, we'll wait for that before we count any chickens on this program. But that caution and careful tally across the state has not kept the president of the United States. From declaring the entire election in California across the state, it's all rigged. It's all rigged. His evidence, well... Apparently, he has zero. None. No evidence whatsoever. Nonetheless, his U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, before the race has even been tallied, before that count has been completed, has already declared on social media that, quote, multiple election fraud investigations are underway. Quote, without commenting on any specific investigation, my office, wrote U.S. Attorney Bill Assaley, has multiple election fraud investigations underway in coordination with FBI Los Angeles. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads and prosecute any violations of federal election law to the fullest extent. Cool. More on that in a minute. And I will welcome your calls on both the gubernatorial contest and the claims of investigations of fraud in the California election. Despite so far, no actual evidence of that fraud, to my knowledge. Got that evidence? Give us call 818-985. KPFK. But actual evidence of fraud, well, it's never really been an obstacle to our quickly deteriorating president of the United States, never been an obstacle from declaring an election to be rigged. Whether it was his own election loss in 2020, for which zero evidence has been shown of fraud since then, despite his claims. His attempts to strong-armed state election officials into stealing that election for him or his attempt to steal the 2020 election himself by inciting an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol in January of 2021. So there's plenty of evidence of that.

And with that, and the news that Republican Spencer Pratt appears doomed in his race for L.A. mayor, at least now, and that there remains a possibility at least that Republican Steve Hilton could be overtaken by the Democrat Tom Steyer in the governor's race. Well, Donald Trump has been on a tear on social media, claiming that the election in California is crooked and it has been rigged. NBC's Kristen Welker on Meet the Press asked Trump about those claims and his evidence for them during an interview in Wisconsin, which I think it's fair to say did not go well for the president who during the Saturday interview as the rain poured around them. Well, we saw his face turned from his usual burnt orange to dark, angry, beat red during the conversation as broadcast on NBC. on Sunday. The election was rigged. It was a dirty election. And it's happening again right now in California. It's happening right now in California. Right now it's looking, look at what's happening in California. It's four days in California. It's, no, they're not there. They're dropping fast because it's a rigged election. Let me tell you. It's four days, and they aren't even close to coming up with it. You know why they're doing that? Because they're cheating on the election. There's, what, do you have evidence to support that? All I have to do is look. All I have to do is look. That's not evidence. And I listen to people. And let's see what happens. But, sir, that's not evidence. Do you think it's appropriate that they count the votes in California? You think it's appropriate that they have an election. And five days later, they're nowhere close to picking the winner. State and local officials acknowledge they are slow. They're urging. No, they're crooked. They're urging the votes to be counted quickly. That's how they vote in California. They're crooked. Just like you're crooked. Your press is crooked. And meet the press is crooked. To be fair, I'm not crooked. But let's, let's continue. Well, you play right into their hands in. Let's continue. You're either crooked or you're stupid. You play right into their hands with a strap. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they're rigged. You know that I won an election in a landslide. And I got 94% bad press. But Mr. President, you know why I got that? Because you have no credibility. But you've never presented evidence that it was rigged. Let's keep talking about. I want to talk about Todd Lynch. You have more evidence. There's more evidence than ever presented. Let's talk about your elections in this country. We're like a third world country. Your elections are crooked and you're crooked and meet the press is crooked. And so is ABC and CBS and CNN. But Mr. President. You're one-sided crooked network. Let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time. Mr. President, let's please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin. I've traveled all the way to Wisconsin. I've sat in the rain with you. I've traveled all the way to Wisconsin. On and off in the rain and I've given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press because you know what? A country can never be great with a dishonest. Listen, we traveled all the way to Wisconsin. He's doing well. Thank you, darling.

You're either crooked or stupid. The president of the United States of America walking out on his interview with NBC's Meet the Press as broadcast on Sunday because the host had the temerity to ask for his evidence of any crooked election. He was able to cite any evidence for them, either in his own in 2020 that he lost or in California where the counting is not even done. And where he has his U.S. attorney in Los Angeles declaring, quote, multiple. election fraud investigations already underway. Our friend Jake Soberoff, a longtime election integrity advocate here in L.A., who's been on the show a number of times before he went on to become a reporter, formerly of NBC, now of MS Now. He reported from the L.A. County elections. warehouse in Norwalk on Sunday, where counting continued over the weekend and where he ran into LA County Registrar Recorder, County Clerk, Dean Logan, who has also been on this show at various times over the years, and with whom I have also had a few, well, a number of dust-ups over the years. But here's Soberoff and his interview with Logan on Sunday at the huge counting center in Norwalk, where election officials have been working away since Election Day. Check this out. What you are looking at is workers inside the ballot processing center of Los Angeles County, the largest election jurisdiction in the United States of America. And I came here really to show my respect, honestly, to these workers who are allowing us to do our civic duty. Donald Trump is sowing the seeds of misinformation and disinformation about the ballot counting process here. And what you're witnessing, what I'm watching happen transparently and in real time, is a painstaking, slow, and deliberate process. Designed look right here to make sure the ballots that have been cast in this election here in Los Angeles and throughout California are counted fairly and accurately and that every single one of them is verified so that the results are correct. Look who I ran into, but Dean Logan, the registrar recorder of Los Angeles. Curious what you think about what the President is saying about what the workers in this ballot processing center are doing. Well, I think, unfortunately, the message that's coming from the president is one that's about the outcome of the election rather than the process of the election. And I think people who come here to our ballot processing center and see the process leave with a better understanding of how that process works. There are cameras recording everything. Is that right? Yep, there are cameras recording. It's live streamed. Where we're standing right now is an open observer loop. Anybody can come and walk through here and watch the process. And people do on a day-to-day basis. And what about bipartisan election observers? Republicans and Democrats are both allowed to come and observe, right? And anyone is allowed to come and observe. So it's not, it's not partisan, it's open, it's publicly available.

If any of the candidates, no matter who they are, have a question or a problem or an accusation about how the votes are being counted, they can walk in here and watch this process themselves, right? Absolutely. And several of them have. I mean, that's why we're here. They can come and watch the process and we can explain exactly what's happening here. So out of curiosity, has Pratt been in here? I don't believe he has been here yet. There have been people representing his campaign here. You ought to come and check it out. It's worth it. Why do you think that so many people are so surprised that the largest election jurisdiction in the country with more voters than anywhere else takes a while to count its votes? I mean, the reality is we have more registered voters in this county than 41 of the states have statewide. Wow. So it's just a massive amount. And our laws in California allow voters, afford voters, multiple options for how to vote. And the voters... Not us, but the voters choose that method. And in this election, a vast majority of the voters chose to turn in their ballots at drop boxes on election day. At the last second. Yeah. How much longer do you think all of this is going to take here? The bulk of the counting is really days, not weeks. We won't certify the election until the end of June because that's the statutory date for certifying the election. But we're counting every day, but the vast majority of the ballot should be in by midweek this coming week. Dean Logan, thank you. So how do you feel about all of this? That was Jake Soberoff with Dean Logan out at Norwalk, the LA County Register recorder, county clerk, as ballots continue to be counted. A lot of folks are suggesting that Trump's evidence-free claims about California are more about the November election and coming up with some sort of a predicate for the federal government to unlawfully disrupt it. More about that than it is about actual concerns about fraud. What do you fear most, I wonder? fraud in our elections in California or anywhere else or the possibility that Donald Trump's administration will try to disrupt them. 8189-85-5735 if the California voters are out there listening live today or from anywhere around the nation via kpfk.org would any of you would like to ring in with your thoughts on that? 818-985 KPFK. Even Republicans in the state, at least those not under the thumb of Donald Trump, are scoffing at his claims. Long-time Republican commentator and arguably operative John Ziegler, who I've had my own dust-ups. with over the years as well, wrote on Twitter over the weekend, quote, I'm a California conservative who hates our Democrat establishment. But there is no logic to the evidence-less theory that our elections are rigged. He says those duped by this theory cannot explain how the GOP won numerous close congressional races in 2022, how Steve Hilton, the gubernatorial candidate who looks like he's on track for now to take the second slot on the November ballot, how Steve Hilton is going to.

beat a Democrat, Tom Steyer, who spent $200 million, how he's going to beat him and still make the runoff if, in fact, our elections are so rigged by Democrats. Ziegler went on to say why the L.A., also they have to explain why the L.A. Democrat establishment would prevent Spencer Pratt from being Karen Bass's opponent when he would have been way, way easier. for her to beat, then if your ramen will be in that mayoral race. Maga writes the Republican Ziegler is really bad at a lot of things, but math and logic are their biggest weakness. As noted, I would love to hear from you with any thoughts on all of these questions and concerns. If you have questions for me about the process, about your concerns, by the way that California votes or counts its votes, as I have been covering them here and across the nation for more than 20 years now. and have, in fact, covered my own concerns about fraud with actual evidence to support those concerns. So give me a call. Looks like our lines are just about full up at the moment. 818-985-5735. If you can't get through, call back as far as these supposed investigations into multiple investigations of voter fraud. Here in L.A. County is announced by the U.S. attorney. Well, you know what? I appreciate that some are concerned about those investigations and feel free to ring in and tell me why, but I welcome those investigations. I welcome Donald Trump's own U.S. attorney and FBI investigating whatever they want. when it comes to California's or L.A.'s elections. Because if they find evidence of fraud, great. They will have to present that evidence in a court of law. And if they've got real evidence of fraud, I'd like to know about it. And I'd like to see those responsible for it prosecuted. And if they have actual evidence that the elections themselves are in some way rigged, well, I'd really like to see that evidence as well. Donald Trump's making that claim. Then again, he also claimed after winning the presidential election back in 2016 that he also actually won the state of California but for five or six million fraudulent votes that he claimed were cast for Hillary that year, who actually won the state by more than four million votes. He had zero evidence of those five or six million fraudulent votes, even though he had four years in office to prove it at the time. So I, for one, I welcome an investigation by Trump's crooked investigators and prosecutors. And yes, I have plenty of evidence that they are crooked in case you're wondering, because he has now taken personal control of the Department of Justice for the first time in the nation's history. He has now taken personal control of the FBI for the first time in the nation's histories. So he's got no excuse for not presenting that evidence of fraud that leads him to say that the California elections are crooked.

I've found serious concerns over the years about California's elections. Have I found evidence that elections themselves are being stolen? No. Has he? Show us the evidence, Mr. President. If you can't, you will only cement your reputation as a loser and a liar and a fraudster yourself, sir. I may have more on this unless you'd like to ring in, which I'd much more prefer to hear anyway. 818985-5735. What are your concerns? Fraud in our elections or concerns that Donald Trump will make false claims of fraud and use it as a predicate for something or other. such as attempting to have the feds take over the November elections? I don't know. Personally, I don't think that's going to work out well for me either, but that's just me. Maybe you feel different. In fact, you may be a Trump supporter or a former Trump supporter. If you're a Trump supporter, well, affirmative action demands that we put you at the top of the call list because I realize Democrats in a Democratic state are maybe being unfair to you. We won't be. 818, 985, 5735. Quick break and we're back. With your calls, I'm Brad Friedman, and you are listening to the broadcast.

What the public hears on the public airwaves matters. At the broadcast, we do our best to bring you accurate news and analysis on the issues that actually matter, and we do it all independently without corporate or political influence. But we can't do it without you, now more than ever. Please help us stay on your public airwaves by going to bradblog.com slash donate to help keep us going. That's bradblog.com slash donate. And thanks. You can count on me like one, two, three, I'll be there. And I know when I need it, I can count on you like four, three, two, two, and you'll be there. Because that's what friends are supposed to do. Oh, yeah. Welcome back. It's Bradcast, Brad Friedman from bradblog.com. You can count on me. I will be there for you since phones are... Blinking Red, like Donald Trump's face on a Meet the Press interview. Let me get to write to those phones, which, by the way, after he walked off that show on Sunday, he continued his tirade via social media. Let's go to Garen in Burbank. Hey, Garen, welcome to the broadcast. I think you said my name. I'm on a cell, so I'm calling. system in California that you're yeah what what what are your thoughts get am i saying that right garen is your name it's got in but we'll still survive with garen okay go ahead um yeah it's the nutty most unjust and per city system has because it includes all the other control control Can you get any closer to your phone, Godin, because I'm having trouble hearing you. I heard you say that it's nutty and unfair, the top two system. Are you able to go off speakerphone and make your point straight into the phone by any chance? Well, I have it on speaker because, hang on. I'm also driving. Oh, okay. Well, don't go off speaker. But have I characterized your thoughts on that accurately, that you just think it's a crazy system? I only have heard you. It's unfair, and it excludes a diversity of political perspective. So it's stupid, to put it bluntly, and to tie in with the topic that may be more appropriate to the moment, Looney's like Trump, an opportunity to say, quote-unquote, things were rigged. Because if you had all these other people, including a Republican, being elected to run in November, that accusation would hold even less water than it does now.

Okay, I appreciate that call, Garan. Thank you very much. Sorry for mangling your name, but I do appreciate the call, sir. 818985, KPFK. Let's go to KJ in LA. Hey, KJ, welcome to the broadcast, sir. Ma'am, I don't know. Who is it? Who's KJ? Hello? Hi there. This is actually Randy. Am I on the air now? Apparently you are. For some reason, you're marked as KJ. I don't know why. Because KJ. I hung up apparently. So I didn't get a chance to check in with Randy. So Randy is randomly, we have no idea what he's going to talk about. What's up, Randy? Well, you may remember from the film, the graduate, Dustin Hoffman was given one word of advice, and that was plastic. Plastic, yeah. Well, I think we have one word that really does describe what's going on with Donald Trump, and that is prednisone. If you look at his face, he's swollen, he's bloated. That's what president's zone does, and he has mean swings, which prednisone is known for. So did you just call in to be mean to the president of the United States, Randy? No, I think it's an accurate observation of his state of mind and health. Oh, I'm not saying it's not accurate. I was just wondering if you're calling in to be mean because, you know, that seems to be my job lately. So thanks. Yeah. I was going to be mean. All right. I wouldn't be as accurate. All right. Thanks, Randy. Good to hear from you, sir. 81895. KPFK. Let's go to Zachary in Los Angeles. Hey, Zachary. Welcome to the show. Zachary, are you there? Hey, Brad, thanks for having me. Thank you for being had. What's on your mind? Yeah, I was calling in regards to, you know, what you're talking about, good conversation going on, and specifically to the allegations of voter fraud. that are being thrown around. There's a couple things I wanted to bring up, you know, hopefully to your attention and maybe to other listeners. There was a case that was announced recently by the U.S. attorney of a woman who was indicted out of Marina del Rey for voter fraud. haven't said yet, you know, how many votes or how many people or whatnot. Actually, let me, let me, let me, let me, be, hang on, Zach, hang on a second, just to clarify, it actually wasn't voter fraud. It was more like election fraud, but specifically it was registration fraud is what you're talking about. I think she was paying people to, uh, to, to collect voter registrations or something. Right. Yeah, I mean, regardless, no one's just going to take like a voter registration or a ballot without doing something with it. So it's very new, right? The case was just announced like a week ago, but clearly, I mean, we're kind of splitting hairs, election fraud, voter fraud. If she's a voter, she committed election fraud. You know what I mean? It's kind of obviously it's one and the same. Well, no, it's actually not. And as long as you're...

As long as we're splitting this hair, let me just be clear about why it's not. Voter fraud is incredibly rare. Election fraud happens quite frequently. Election fraud is sort of the broader category. Voter fraud is a lot less prevalent, you know, where somebody, for example, goes to a polling place and says they are somebody who they are not and they cast their vote. And the reason that distinction is important is because Republicans and people basically who are, you know, anti- democracy for years have been trying to make it harder and harder and harder to vote on the premise that there are thousands and millions of people going to the polls and misrepresenting themselves and voting in someone else's name, committing voter fraud, and therefore we've got to put all sorts of restrictions on who can and can't vote and what kind of ID they have and basically prevent more people from casting their vote than fraudsters that we could possibly stop. So it's important to be accurate here. In this case, what you're identifying, this woman who is alleged, I think she's pled guilty of paying people to register voters. By the way, people pay to register voters all around the country and other places where it is not unlawful. But yeah, she pled guilty to that. Obviously, yeah. So in this case it is. And, you know, if you're harvesting voters for any reason, clearly you're trying to sway something. So to me, it's just like, you know, obviously there's more to come. We're not the U.S. attorney, so we don't know what evidence exists or not. And then moreover to that point, you know, she's getting people on Skid Row who are homeless, maybe mentally ill, maybe both, maybe on drugs, to participate in this scheme. And if you go look up, you know, you should show me the evidence, go look up, O'Keefe Media Group. They did the story about a month ago on Skid Row. And I'll just let me say, I switched over to your station by accident. I was in NPR all the time. I said, man, this is really interesting. I'd have to call in. Good. Good. They did the story in Skid Row. Yeah, they're conservative. But, I mean, if you live in Los Angeles, you know that they're on the ground at Skid Row in that video. And you watch as people are accepting $1, $2 cigarettes to sign, you know, a petition. to register to vote, et cetera. I mean, if that's not fraud, I don't know what is you. Well, then I will help you understand what is fraud. Let me explain this to you, Zachary. Now, by the way, James O'Keefe is himself a fraud. He has had to pay money for having misrepresented all sorts of things. I know his work very well over the years. I've exposed his entire acorn scam, if you're old enough to remember, his pimp scam to be complete and utter nonsense. and complete lies. That said, yes, there are groups out there, Republican groups, Democratic groups, who pay people to collect signatures. And in this case, you've got somebody who is paying, you know, like you said, a homeless person or giving them a cigarette in order to have them sign up to register to vote. And then that person goes back and she gets paid whatever, you know, $5, $10 per signature. Yes, that is what is going on. It doesn't necessarily mean a vote is cast. It doesn't, you know, if she's able to get 10, 20, 50 people in a city like Los Angeles where Donald Trump.

lost where he got 24% of the vote, are you suggesting that that is going on so much and there's enough pretend people somehow casting votes from somewhere that it would actually steal an election in Los Angeles? Not necessarily, no, but I do think that it could certainly pad votes for certain measures and things like that, you know what I mean, that maybe, you know, certain politicians or parties are more... more likely to support than others. Well, it's easy to find out. It's easy to find out because we have all of those names and those voter registrations. Do we know if any of those people actually cast a vote, whether it was them casting it or someone casting it for them? It's not easy for the layman, and I'd argue it's not easy for, you know, me or you that are probably a little more studied on these issues to figure out these people vote. You know what I mean? You got transients that don't have a dedicated address for more than three months. Who are allowed to vote? You know, I've happened to also been unhoused in Los Angeles. Who are allowed to vote? When you sign up for Medi-Cal, when you sign up for these things, they register you to vote. Good, they should. I think it's pretty naive to think like, oh, well, they're not coming after the vote. They just want the signature. I don't know. I don't know. Do you have a problem with them registering people to vote if they come in for, you said Medicare, but I think Medicaid, we want them to vote, right? Register people to vote all you want. You sign up for food stamps. They ask you to register. You go to the PMB, they ask you to register. People should vote, vote, vote, vote. Good. But if that's being tied to, hey, sign up for Medicare and I'll give you. No. And I'll give you... There is no... There is zero evidence of that, Zach. And if you're going to make the allegations, and I appreciate you make them, because, yes, there are people defrauding the system. You go to bradblog.com, and you can read about all of the Republican parties, scams that have taken place around the country over the last two decades that I've been covering this in which they are doing exactly that. Paying people $5, $10, $20 per vote happens all the time. That is not the same as stealing an election. And as far as I know, there is no evidence that somebody has said, hey, if you sign up for Medicaid and register to vote, I will give you money. I'm unaware of such allegations. But again, don't know that that would steal an election, would it? just any rest. You're saying that even though there might be tons of evidence of people paying people to vote or paying people to gather signatures for a ballot position, that that is not indicia of election fraud. It is. No, no, I never said anything in the sort. Of course it's election fraud. And of course, they should be held accountable. Did I say tons? I never said, I. It is. Zach, I never said there were tons of people doing this. I said it has happened all the time, you know, across the country for years. And we always find these isolated incidents of a wrongdoer who is out there trying to keep their job registering voters and often, you know, violating the law.

by the way, by only registering voters of one party or another. That happens. That's not voter fraud because they're not, the voters aren't committing fraud. And there's no evidence that that sort of thing has flipped elections other than a U.S. House race in North Carolina that had to be canceled and done again because the Republican candidate there was literally paying someone to go out and change people's votes. and vote for people. And so that election was reheld. He was out. And now he's back in Congress a few years later because Republicans don't actually care, as it turns out, about election fraud. Unfortunately, what I think, and I don't know the party preference of this show or even you or whatever, but there's two things. But one, you know, Jay Mokies, he's been sued, this, that the other. I don't know if you ever been sued before or arrested, but does that mean that everything you say has no creative? No, that doesn't mean it. What means it is his 15 or so years, 20 or so years of putting out fraudulent videos that have been edited to show something that did not actually happen. Skid Row, it looks pretty legit, man. It's a little scary. Okay. It's happening. When it comes down to, you know, Republicans did this. Democrats did that. I mean, it seems to be the like... People are very dismissive of what could be a very serious issue. All right. Well, I'm not going to dismiss anything, Zach. I appreciate that, and I appreciate anybody being held accountable for what they did. As far as I know, there's no evidence that any of those things were actually turned into actual votes. If you have evidence to the contrary, do please let me know. I'm Bradcast at bradblog.com, and I would go on longer with you, but I'm coming up to the top of the hour and I want to get in a few more calls. Zach, I really appreciate you tuning in and calling in. Let's try to do it again, and I'll... get to you earlier if I can. You guys have a good one. Thank you. Thanks, Zach. 818-9-8-5-57-35. Don't know why I'm giving the number. Won't have enough time. Let me go to Jane in Peach Cities. Hey, Jay, welcome to the broadcast. What's on your mind very quickly? Hi, Jane. Hi. My name is Jane. The reason why I'm calling, you know, I have read reports about ballots in Los Angeles being found burned, voting center vandalized. ballot harvesting, that somehow does contribute to voter fraud, do you not think? Well, I suppose what you call ballot harvesting is actually perfectly lawful in many states. That said, I'm unaware of any voting centers being burned, or what was the first thing that you said? What was the first thing you mentioned, Jane? Yeah, well, that was actually that happened eight days ago in downtown LA. And how do we not know that some of those ballots could not have been for Spencer Pratt? You're saying ballots were burned in L.A. eight days ago? Were burned. Okay. I'll look it up. Eight days ago. Even the voting center was vandalized. Okay.

We'll look it up. I'm unaware of that, and it looks like there's an investigation underway after L.A. County Voting Center vandalized mail-in ballots burned. I will look into that. Thank you for bringing it to my attention, Jane. Yes. And I feel like that's a hefty concern. You know, me and myself, I did not vote this time for either race. I do lean more Republican. But I just feel like when you have a system of people sending in mail-in ballots, I feel like the righteous thing that they should do is per se set up a deadline. That people can only send in their mail-in ballots by a specific date. They do. So this way all these votes are tallied by the time of the election day. Well, they have a deadline. The deadline is Election Day. That's when everybody must vote by election day. Moreover, if it's a voting center that you say presumably there was a drop box in Los Angeles and downtown Los Angeles, if a drop box is burnt in downtown Los Angeles, yeah, there might be some Spencer Pratt votes lost, but I'll bet you anything that it's more Democratic votes that were lost in that fire than reporters. Republican ones in downtown LA. Well, you know, to me, it really doesn't matter whether it was Democratic or Republican. Me neither. I'm responding to you. But it just shows how, yeah, to me, it just shows how, you know, funky the system is. I mean, if you have people mailing in, they should change those laws around. Whereas these people can only send in their ballot by a specific date before the election day where everybody has to go in and vote. Why? So this way is determined on the same day. Why? Why does it need to be determined on the same day? Why shouldn't people be able to vote at their convenience up until election day? Because then it sort of makes people think funky things are going on. That's why. Yeah. Well, you think funky things are going on because you have been manipulated to believe that, Jane, unfortunately. There's a whole lot of people making a whole lot of money on the industry of making folks like you feel that there are funky things going on when there are not or when there are funky things misrepresenting those things. Jane, unfortunately. Yeah, go ahead. Finish your thought. I got to get that. I equally listen to people like you. Yeah. I listen to your show. I equally listen to other shows. I'm not biased to it. Yeah. I just have my own opinion, which there's nothing wrong with that. Correct. But when it comes to voting, when you see so many different things happening, so many different things that I've had people say to me, the reasoning is why they don't vote as well. A lot of people don't have confidence in the system. That we will agree 100%. And there are things that can be done to help it. But there's also a lot of folks lying out there to make you feel that way. Jane, I got to go. Thanks. I really do appreciate hearing from you. And I hope you will call back as well.

All right, we got to get out. My thanks. My apologies to those folks I couldn't get to. I know a lot of folks wanted to get in today. My apologies, we will keep trying hopefully next week. Until then, my thanks to our board operator, Will. Our producer, as always, Desi Doyen, and for all of you for spending a portion of your day or night with us. If you missed any portion of today's show, you'll be able to download it for free. Just a few hours from now at bradblog.com. The newly redesigned, Bradblog.com, check it out. Drop me email. I'm Bradcast at Bradblog.com. And on the social medias, I am the Bradblog. See you there. Until we see you here, hopefully tomorrow, I'm Brad Friedman. Good luck world. We're listening to the Bradcast. We are 100% listener supported thanks to listeners like you who drop by bradblog.com slash donate.