Give us an update on your view of how this is proceeding here, or in this case, not proceeding with this antitrust lawsuit still to be decided.

Yeah, so, you know, I said from the very beginning when Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Paramount and Warner Brothers to stop the mergers that this was a scam lawsuit.

It's politically motivated.

Just so people know, this merger is perfectly licit.

It has been scrutinized by the federal government.

It's been scrutinized by the European Union, by other countries around the world who may have an interest in the outcome.

And they have all said that this is good for business, that there's nothing that would be violative of any law, and that they support it and approve it.

What happened last week? And is there still a chance for some kind of a settlement before this goes to court?

... to hold people accountable?

Yeah, so like you said, I was the city attorney of Huntington Beach from 2014 to 2025, then I went to Washington, DC to work with the Department of Justice.

Before all of that, I was in private practice defending our law enforcement.

I was, uh, when the Orange County Sheriff's Department was sued, when the deputies were sued for doing their job, I was taking their cases to trial and defending them, so I've got a, a long history with defending police as well.

But when it comes to Huntington Beach, just so the audience knows too, Huntington Beach is the 23rd largest city in the state of California out of 482.

So it's a very, very large city.

Uh, it's got 200,000 residents and 15 million visitors a year.

What do you guys think?

And, um, let me ask you this, uh, regarding this, uh, big merger deal now and this, uh, lawsuit, uh, give us your thoughts about, uh, what's happening, and, uh, if you were attorney general, how would you handle the situation?

Yeah, so this lawsuit is nothing more than a scam, frankly.

I'm not afraid to say it, um, in part because the 12 attorneys general, like you mentioned, who lined up to sue the Paramount, uh, Warner Brothers, uh, merger, basically it's very, very partisan.

They're all Democrat attorney gen- attorneys general.

They are making this a political endeavor.

It is a scam.

Um, it is not legitimate.

While we have the mom- uh, this moment, and, and you shared, uh, your expertise in the antitrust, uh, specialty, uh, could you, uh, contrast, uh, your legal expertise, uh, versus, uh, Bonta's expertise, uh, especially in the courtroom?

Thank you.

Yeah.

So we're, the bottom line is we're lawless in California.

There's just literally no law and order.

Our leaders in Sacramento, both Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, will look For any way to do anything they want, including recently, as you noted, thumbing their nose at federal law.

Like well-established federal laws that have been on the books for decades, decades and decades, whether it's immigration law, whether it's the way in which, uh, healthcare is funded for citizens only.

No matter what it is, they're thumbing their nose at federal law, and this is what I've been campaigning on.

Uh, if people wanna get in touch with you and get involved with you, how do they do that?

automatic support thereafter but in terms of of real issues are you going to have a chance to debate the hard issues the legitimate issues with mr bonta

so we've uh we've demanded a debate and we're waiting to see um some media outlets are interested in having a debate as well you're right he is a career process um a career politician excuse me he is a career politician he spent 10 years in the legislature so while he was you know having nice dinners with lobbyists as a legislator as a As an advocate for policy, I was in the courtroom.

I was in and out of the courtroom for years trying cases.

I've tried many multimillion-dollar cases myself, as you noted in the intro.

I was a successful prosecutor, criminal prosecutor in Huntington Beach.

Huntington Beach is one of the safest cities in the entire state of California under my leadership.

No excuses and no exceptions.

lot

So once you get in there, what do you do about the high speed rail?

Well, right now it looks like from some of the audits that we're hearing about or the results of the audits that actually it violates Prop 1A.

I mean, there's restrictions on the funding specifically that was embedded in Prop 1A that was passed by the voters.

And now it looks like they're doing some funny business with the money in Sacramento.

No surprise there, right? Right.

But it looks like the funding actually violates the terms of Prop 1A.

So when I am in office... we are going to come out with a legal opinion basically saying that this funding scheme for the bullet train actually is illegal.

that's great all right uh how did you meet nick shirley uh how do you have friends with that cat

What is it Rob Bonta's business if two companies decide they want to merge, especially since we have such a splintered media environment with endless choices?

Yeah, so first of all, I mean, we all know that Rob Bonta is not very smart.

He literally is even using the wrong terminology.

He's calling it blackmail.

I think what he's looking for is extortion, but it's not.

It's These companies, if they're going to be sued out of business, they're going to leave the state of California before they get sued out of business, right? So these lawsuits, the antitrust lawsuit that Rob Bonta has filed along with 11 other states basically is alleging that the Paramount merger with Time Warner is a violation of antitrust law.

In other words, the merger would cause them to control so much of the market that there would be a disadvantage or a noncompetitive advantage for the customer.

Ellison seems like he's serious, too, because he already got the board, he says, has approved a move, and he says he'll move CBS News out of New York City because that attorney general is involved in the same lawsuit, and he's willing to leave both

Is that even normal attorney general behavior? Is he allowed to do that? I mean, what is he afraid of?

Yeah.

So the past 16 years or so, ever since Kamala Harris was elected as our attorney general and then Becerra became our attorney general and now Bonta, all of those years we have seen the attorney general write very deceptive ballot titles and very deceptive summaries of the proposition.

And the deception is because the attorney general wants to put his or her thumb on the scale and basically try to influence the outcome of the vote on that proposition.

And so it's not uncommon, as we've seen with Attorney General, again, Kamala Harris and then Becerra and now Bonta, to, if they don't like a proposition, to put a title on it that's confusing or misleading, and or have a ballot summary that's confusing or misleading.

And so they literally are playing politics with their job.

They shouldn't be doing that.

Go to stellatrustgold.com or text STELLA Yeah, so

Why has that question not been asked? Because it seems like that is the 60,000- $64,000 question in this race.

Yeah.

So that's a great question, and I'm glad you know the history.

A lot of voters don't know the history of Oakland and the crooked politics there and the players involved.

Uh, Rob Bonta absolutely is involved.

He has connections.

Uh, not only are they just loose connections and political connections, but these are longtime friends of his.

... will protect the system as it exists now.

Why has that question not been asked? Because it seems like that is the $64,000 question in this race.

yeah so that's a great question and i'm glad you know the history a lot of voters don't know the history of oakland and the crooked politics there and the players involved rob bonta absolutely is involved he has connections not only are they just loose connections and political connections but these are long-time friends of his so rob bonta has been seen partying if you look at the photos and the videos in the past he has been seen partying with Andy Duong and members of the Duong family, along with his wife Mia, for years.

They were friends and political allies.

Andy Duong made or funneled approximately $160,000 of campaign contributions to Rob Bonta's campaigns.

And then Cheng Tao, who's been federally indicted, as you mentioned.

Andy Duong was federally indicted, too.

Former Mayor Sheng Tao was federally indicted.

But if the story breaks after the election, Bonta wins, Becerra appoints, then they can put someone in who will not do those things and will protect the system as it exists now.

Uh, if you were attorney general, would you do something similar?

100%.

Um, I said this yesterday, I put it on social media, uh, Dr. Fauci is in a world of hurt right now, and I don't think people realize.

First of all, the blanket pardon that, that President Biden issued on behalf of Fauci to pardon him from all crimes was so generic and overbroad that if it were properly challenged in court, I do not think it would pass constitutional muster.

Uh, pardons were meant for specific crimes, pardons for specific crimes, and the pardon should actually contemplate a specific crime.

You can't just have a blanket pardon, which is a get out of jail free card, a- and it just be blanket.

That ma- basically removes all accountability from our government if the pre- our federal government at least.

Right.

You've been talking

to people.

What are you hearing? Well, so for starters, the polls are showing that 65% of respondents to the polls are saying that California is headed in the wrong direction.

And that's a really good sign for candidates like myself, who are change candidates.

I'm the law and order candidate.

And as you know, we live in a state of lawlessness right now because of Attorney General Rob Bonta.

But that 65% is very high.

We see that so often that when the laws that are on the books that were passed, debated, passed and signed by Republicans and Democrats alike, if they're just utilized, like we don't necessarily need more law

policies and zoning and things.

Yeah.

And Huntington Beach is the 23rd largest city in the state of California out of almost 500.

And it was a lot of work, 200,000 residents, 15 million visitors a year.

And, you know, you mentioned in the intro, I've been involved in a lot of controversy.

And the thing is, is I never looked for trouble, but I was always willing to go to the mat and fight for my folks in Huntington Beach because of the, as you say, the crap coming out of Sacramento.

all of these years.

Prop 47.

Yeah.

No, you know, I thought, look, there's there's it's fine.

I'll be safe.

It's fine.

So I went up and I talked to a lot of them and I actually said, like, look, you know, there's a lot of people suffering out here.

And they're like, absolutely.

And I said, you know, like, how would you describe it? What are you hearing on the streets? And they're like, oh, the you know, this is Mayor Bass's fault.

those ended up on skid row how many of them just moved to the next county up

You're getting a major endorsement that you're ready to share.

Yes, thank you so much.

We just had a press conference today, a joint press conference with former governor candidate and current sheriff of Riverside County, Chad Bianco.

And he announced at that press conference, which was his first public statement since the June primary, by the way, at that press conference, He announced that he's endorsing me for attorney general, which is fantastic.

It's awesome.

And quite honestly, we are in such a state of lawlessness in California and high crime that it is timely.

And I think the people are looking.

And if you do report it, nobody shows up to do anything about it.

What did voters learn?

Well, Chad Bianco's obviously a really important endorsement.

Uh, he represents so much about law enforcement in California, and when crime and public safety is top of mind for most voters in California, and that's one of the leading issues when it comes to who they're gonna vote for in November, having Chad Bianco's endorsement is huge for me.

Uh, as you know, attorney general is the top cop in California, the chief law enforcement officer, and also the chief legal counsel.

So lot of legal responsibilities, but ultimately responsible for keeping public safety in order and maintaining law and order throughout the state of California.

As you know, Matt, uh, here in California, Rob Bonta has done anything but, uh, maintain law and order in the state.

In fact, he's quite lawless, and I made that point at the press conference that he is the enemy of public safety, the enemy of law and order, and frankly, the enemy of law enforcement.

Uh, how do you see criminals involved in retail theft and these smash-and-grabs?

How can you put together the coalition in a blue state to win against the Bonta crime family?

So it's a great question.

And frankly, really to give your audience hope, It's frankly because the elitists in Sacramento have just run this state into the ground.

We are now in crisis.

I have said repeatedly on the campaign trail, we are lawless in California at the hands of Rob Bonta.

As you know, he was a career politician 10 years in the legislature before he was appointed as our attorney general by Newsom in 2021.

And ever since then, He's really continued to act as a career politician.

People are like, okay, we're going to give the Republican the attorney general job because we know that at least they will keep us safe.

How is it different than the other form of voting? And why would this be beneficial to Democrats? A lot to break down here.

Yeah, so just a little bit of context.

So Hunting to Reach California is the 23rd largest city in the state out of nearly 500 cities.

It's got 27 square miles, 200,000 residents, about 135,000 voters, and has about 15 million visitors a year.

It was the first city in the state of California to adopt a local voter id law i was the architect of the local voter id law when i was city attorney there in 2024 when it passed it became the law of the land and then that got challenged by sacramento and so that's up on appeal it's actually before the u.s supreme court the city was also sued because it had been an at-large election so many many cities and school districts went to by district voting systems or election systems because they received scary letters from attorneys that basically said, if you don't carve your at-large election system up where every voter in the city gets to vote for every elected official, if you don't carve that up into districts, So that every voter is now only voting for one representative, then we're going to sue you because your system as an at-large election system is inherently racist, right? It suppresses minority votes.

Well, that's completely not true.

In fact, as we know, the U.S. Supreme Court just came down very, very recently that basically said that you cannot use – it was a 2026 case – from the U.S. Supreme Court that basically said that you cannot use race as a predominant factor in order to make determinations with regard to districting because using race is racist.

So you have a system by which people who are receiving candidates who are receiving fewer votes could actually be propelled.

Tell us what you told that group in Bel Air recently, and what is your message to Southern California?

Well, we have a rare opportunity here in California right now to rescue California.

We all know that California is in crisis.

In fact, most people say they love California, but they do not like living here right now because of the high crime, the high taxes, the high gas prices, the high homeless rates.

And now Sacramento, passing all of these bills, whether it's the Stop Nick Shirley Act, which is an attack on our First Amendment, or now they're trying to tax us per mile that we drive, that California is in a world of hurt.

And with all of that going on, respondents to polls, by a margin of 65%, so 65% of respondents to polls, are saying that California is headed in the wrong direction.

That's good news for challengers like myself.

Address the business side of what you'd be doing in that position.

Why isn't this done by Rob Bonta, the California Attorney General? How come he doesn't police all the fraud that we're facilitating?

It's absolutely shocking.

And he's been in office for five years.

He was appointed by Newsom as an appointment.

He's an appointed attorney general.

That occurred in 2021.

Newsom put him there knowing that he was a career politician, not a real lawyer.

Is this another something Rob Bonta ought to be investigating that he should have discovered early on?

Uh, I, I'm kinda curious, what's your read on what's going on with this slow vote count, and what could, in your estimation, the attorney general currently be doing, or... and if you were the attorney general, what would you be doing?

Yeah, so the slow vote count is very, very disturbing.

Uh, the fact that our state leadership is not concerned about it, they're not encouraging a faster vote count, um, is shocking to me.

You know, we're the fourth-largest economy in the world.

Uh, we're one- we're the, the most, you know, advanced country in the world, and so for us to be still counting votes is just...

It's disturbing, it's shocking, and frankly disappointing.Um, Bill Esailly, you know, is just the latest in many efforts by the federal government to come into California and either, uh, try to fight the corruption like we've seen, the waste, fraud, abuse, nearly $500 billion.

JD Vance has headed the task force to go after the corruption in, um, in California, and now it's elections concerns, like you said with Bill Esailly.

I mean, which one of those is a priority, or are all of them?

Uh, what, what, what's, what's the campaign strategy to get from 42 to 50?

So there's a couple things.

One, I, I got almost 43%.

The votes are not being done counted.

We anticipate with the late counted ballots that I may be at 44, 45.

We'll see.

Uh, but the point is, is I did all of that without spending a dollar on marketing myself or my campaign.

We sh- we can't allow this."

What's your closing argument to voters in these final hours as Californians get prepared to head to the polls?

Well, I think most, first of all, thank you for having me.

I think it's clear among so many Californians, 65% of Californians responding to polls say that California's headed in the wrong direction.

So that's Democrats, Independents, and Republicans all agree that California's pretty messed up.

As we say, it's in crisis right now and it's crying out to be rescued.

I am the change agent.

As you know, Matt, the Attorney General position is very, very critical.

Talk about what it means to have some of these other campaigns awakening voters to the fact that they don't have to live in the mire and squalor that is a lot of urban California.

... following the rules, regulations, and freedoms that America has.

Well, it c- my experience there confirmed what everyday Californians know to be true, which is California is lawless.

Sacramento, as you said, s- it, it, it seems like they seek to violate our constitutional rights on a regular basis.

The Second Amendment's a perfect example, and I have told people on the campaign trail when... on this campaign trail for attorney general that when I'm attorney general, on day one, I'm going to issue a notice to all of my sheriffs.

So I will have purview over all 58 counties, all 58 sheriff's departments, all 58 sheriffs.

I'm gonna issue a notice to them that if they're not issuing concealed carry weapons permits within 90 days of application, that they are in violation of the Second Amendment.

So I'm gonna be drawing a line in the sand on a lot of issues like that and others to let our state agencies know, our law enforcement officers, our leaders know that they're...

Tell me a little bit about working with both of those, uh, candidates on the, the gubernatorial level and, and your feeling going into the primary tomorrow.

You know, I, um, I, I think a lot of people look at what's happening in California right now and, and let me say it is really just an incredibly beautiful state, beautiful people, and I think the biggest problem is that the Democrats have allowed criminals and the criminal element to pretty much control the streets of California cities.

Yeah.

Yeah, and, uh, actually Democrats have done the unthinkable.

They've actually been able to drive...

And this is the Sacramento elitist.

They've actually been able to drive people out of this beautiful state of California.

It seemed that for decades everybody wanted to try to get here, to come here, and our population was booming, and now we've lost almost a million people from, you know, leaving California to go to other states over the past four years.

And, and I'm just curious, what is it, what is it that you're hearing from these Democrats that, um, that, that are em- embracing your message?