Rob Bonta (00:00):
... my parents always told me, if you work hard enough, you can go to college. If you dream big enough, you can go to law school. I want to fight for the underdog. I want to fight for justice. I want to use the law for good things. I want to be Atticus Finch, a champion.
Bob Simon (00:10):
A lot of my friends, that when I first got introduce to you, the first thing they said is, "Rob Bonta will listen."
Ryan Stygar (00:15):
California's cost-of-living crisis, it truly is a crisis.
Mauro Fiore (00:19):
Look at that hairline too. The guy's 53, 54 years old.
Ryan Stygar (00:23):
It's a golden age for hair in Sacramento right now.
Mauro Fiore (00:24):
He hasn't lost a hair out of that forehead.
Bob Simon (00:37):
Welcome to this episode of Bourbon of Proof, where we interview those who have been successful, both law and life, and we do so over several spirits to get the conversation going. And again, as always, we have our esteemed co-host today, Mauro Fiore Jr.
Mauro Fiore (00:50):
Hello. Thank you, Bob. I'm glad to be back. And we have another guest-
Bob Simon (00:55):
Co-host.
Mauro Fiore (00:55):
... today.
Bob Simon (00:56):
We have Ryan Stygar, Attorney Ryan, the working class advocate. Ryan, thanks for being here today.
Ryan Stygar (01:01):
Hey, it's an honor to be back. Thank you.
Bob Simon (01:04):
And Mauro's wearing his Bike Shed T-shirt because we're filming today from Los Angeles, summer of 2024 from the Bike Shed and Tom Hardy's private bar. Thank you, Charles Lew and Bike Shed.
Mauro Fiore (01:14):
And Tom Hardy.
Bob Simon (01:16):
And Tom Hardy. And we also have, well, right now we're filming the summer of 2024, so we will introduce you as the Attorney General of California Rob Bonta.
Rob Bonta (01:24):
Sounds good.
Bob Simon (01:25):
Thank you for [inaudible 00:01:26] to be here.
Rob Bonta (01:26):
Thanks for having me.
Bob Simon (01:26):
As this airs in '25, '26 you might have a different title. Might be janitor, might be governor, president. We don't know, but that's where it is right now.
Rob Bonta (01:36):
Who knows what the future holds.
Bob Simon (01:37):
That's right. So Mauro, why don't you start us off with a pour here at Bourbon of Proof with what you selected for the Attorney General.
Mauro Fiore (01:43):
Well, not always that we get these high level politicians. The Attorney General in California I know has been great advocate for consumers.
Rob Bonta (01:54):
Thank you.
Mauro Fiore (01:56):
And so we are bringing only the top shelf stuff for the attorney general. So this is a bottle of Old Rip Van Winkle 10 year. This is the 10-year-old version of the 23 year. If they aged it for 13 years, it'd be the 23-year Pappy Van Winkle. This is when it's 10 years. It's called Old Rip Van Winkle. And it's one of the most highly sought after and collectible bourbons in the world. So we're going to drink the good stuff.
(02:30):
I gave this bottle to Bob as a gift.
Rob Bonta (02:32):
Regifting.
Mauro Fiore (02:36):
Bob brought it... All the bourbon I've drank on Bob's tab over the years, I own a few of these bottles. So we're going to drink the real good stuff.
Bob Simon (02:47):
We never drink alone and we share the whiskey with our friends. Yep, Ryan has a special pour. He's a baby bottle there. Look at that. Thank you.
Mauro Fiore (02:54):
It's a zero proof rum alternative.
Bob Simon (02:57):
Oh, rum. Rumpelstiltskin.
Ryan Stygar (02:58):
Hey, it's no Rip Van Winkle but I'll get into it.
Bob Simon (03:02):
Look the rum is darker than ours. Well, cheers.
Rob Bonta (03:04):
Cheers.
Bob Simon (03:05):
Attorney General Bonta, thank you for coming on.
Mauro Fiore (03:07):
Cheers.
Ryan Stygar (03:07):
Cheers.
Rob Bonta (03:08):
Thank you.
Ryan Stygar (03:08):
Cheers.
Bob Simon (03:08):
We're going to start-
Rob Bonta (03:08):
Good to be here.
Bob Simon (03:08):
... the hard conversations after three pours. Well, it's fantastic.
Rob Bonta (03:16):
Smooth.
Mauro Fiore (03:16):
That is Pappy Van Winkle. The best of the best.
Bob Simon (03:20):
This is absolutely fantastic. So one of the things, we don't like to talk a lot about, stuff that you like to talk about on the show. We like to talk about you because I know you're not a you guy. First of all, your hair's fantastic. What's your secret? Everybody ever ask you this question?
Rob Bonta (03:40):
No, definitely the butt of many jokes.
Bob Simon (03:44):
Wow, look at this. I'm envious of this.
Ryan Stygar (03:47):
You're just jealous.
Mauro Fiore (03:48):
Yeah, yeah a little Grecian formula.
Rob Bonta (03:51):
I chalk it up to jealousy. No secrets. Just a lot of product. A lot of work.
Bob Simon (03:59):
But we'll get into your routine. You might get a sponsorship from L'Oreal or something. No, but what a lot of people don't realize is while you went to Yale, you played soccer there. And we'll fast-forward, a lot of the... Your daughter now plays professional soccer in South America. She's in Brazil.
Rob Bonta (04:15):
Brazil.
Bob Simon (04:17):
But you came here from the Philippines when you're two months old.
Rob Bonta (04:20):
Correct.
Bob Simon (04:21):
And you lived in an RV for a while.
Rob Bonta (04:23):
Yep. Trailer-
Bob Simon (04:25):
Trailer Park.
Rob Bonta (04:26):
... in La Paz. That's part of the Farm Worker Movement.
Bob Simon (04:29):
And I mean, you worked your way up, living in Sacramento. You have been a public servant for almost all of your professional career. And I want to know coming from absolutely nothing and being such a big advocate for workers and consumers, why did you... Because it's hard for... like a lot of us, we try to think that we do good. How did you devote your professional life to public service?
Rob Bonta (05:02):
Well, thank you for that intro. We're all a product of our lived experiences and the influences around us, those who raised us, including my parents, I am very much my parents' son. And their values, their priorities, their mission are, I think, reflected in me and I'm proud of that. That's what I wanted.
(05:27):
I saw them serve others and I wanted to do what they did. I saw them fight for justice for people. They saw and valued the underdog, the undervalued, the cast over, the cast out and they said, "I'm going to fight for you. And you shouldn't be treated in those ways by people who have power and are abusing their power." And I pursued a career in law to have a tool that I believed I could wield as a force for good. And I believe I'm doing that now as the Attorney General of California.
(06:04):
But when my dad was involved in the Civil Rights Movement, he as a grad student in California in 1965 in Berkeley, he felt called to go to Selma, Alabama because a friend of his was on the ground organizing and sending audio cassette tapes to him in the mail of the voice of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking about a more just world, a more equal society. And my dad felt he needed to be part of that and go and join the mission with others to fight for civil rights and constitutional rights.
(06:36):
He jumped on a train. He rode for three days. He arrived in Selma. He was there with Stokely Carmichael. He met him. He was in church at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, when unannounced, Martin Luther King Jr. came to deliver a surprise sermon. So he listened to the great Martin Luther King Jr. speak at the height of the civil rights movement. And he was able to do his part in that transformational movement in our nation.
(07:03):
Later my parents got married. My mom was an immigrant for the Philippines, came here at 28 years old for the first time, took a ship for three weeks to arrive in California. She had a scholarship to study at seminary where my dad was enrolled.
Bob Simon (07:18):
Wow.
Rob Bonta (07:19):
My dad grew up in Ventura County, first in his family to go to a four-year college. He started at Moorpark Community College, transferred to Cal and then went to the Pacific School of Religion, which is where my parents met.
(07:30):
They went back to the Philippines after marriage. They served as missionaries. So that service mentality, after my dad being involved in the civil rights movement already. My sister was born first and then I was born.
(07:42):
Right after I was born, my parents asked themselves this question. They asked themselves, can we raise our son here, now, this place, this time, and guarantee that he has democracy and freedom, the rule of law due process, civil rights and human rights? And their answer was no. Unfortunately, a dictator was rising to power. Martial law was exactly a year out from being declared. I share a birthday with the anniversary of the Declaration of Martial Law in the Philippines.
(08:15):
So my parents brought me here to California because they believed that things they wanted for me but couldn't have for me in the Philippines were present here. And so we arrived in LA. Echo Park was my first stop, and my parents always believed that you can't just hope for the things that you want. You can't put your chin on your elbow and look out the window and hope that those things will arrive. You have to manifest them with your action. You have to fight for them and work for them.
(08:43):
So they started working for the United Farmers of America. They joined the Lettuce Boycott. They collected signatures outside of supermarkets, and they had their clipboards and their sleeves rolled up.
Bob Simon (08:53):
Were you there with them doing these things as a young kid?
Rob Bonta (08:56):
I was-
Bob Simon (08:57):
What do you remember?
Rob Bonta (08:57):
... a toddler then. My earliest memories are from when they moved from LA when the United Farm Workers asked them to go to the headquarters of La Paz. That's when we lived in a trailer. My brother joined us there. He was born. Our family of five we lived a stone's throw away from Cesar Chavez. My dad worked in the front office with Cesar Chavez. They got paid $10 a week for their service to the Movement. My dad helped set up healthcare clinics.
(09:24):
I remember playing with the other kids. I remember the trailer? I remember the Central Valley terrain and environment. I remember playing under the trailer with my brother and I remember going to meetings. Then later even more so going to demonstrations and rallies and protests everyday people coming together for a common cause.
(09:53):
My dad later got recruited to do what he did for the farm workers to do that for the state of California. So we moved to Sacramento and he set up healthcare clinics for underserved communities, for refugee communities and rural communities.
(10:09):
The Marcos dictatorship was in full effect in the Philippines. And so I spent weekends and weekdays going with my mom to demonstrations and actions calling out the human rights abuses.
(10:20):
And so all of this is a long way to say that from the Civil Rights Movement to the Farm Worker Movement, to the fight to restore democracy in the Philippines. And it was restored in 1986. And I always wondered what a mom and her son could do. And I realized there were millions of others calling for the same thing.
Bob Simon (10:36):
So you were born in probably '68, '69 about there?
Rob Bonta (10:39):
'71.
Bob Simon (10:40):
'71. So this was late '70s or early '80s where these core memories of your parents, your folks like being in the Civil Rights Movement, I mean that had to stay with you because that's what you're doing now.
Rob Bonta (10:55):
It stayed with me. When you're young, you don't appreciate it all. I mean, you mentioned I played soccer. I wanted to go play soccer. I wanted to go spend time with my friends, but the things that are in you never leave you. And as you grow, they grow with you.
(11:10):
My parents always told me, if you work hard enough, you can go to college. If you dream big enough, you can go to law school. I cracked open to Kill a Mockingbird. And I was like, "I want to be Atticus Finch, if that's what a lawyer is, make me one please." I want to fight for the underdog. I want to fight for justice. I want use the law for good things. And those are immature dreams, but they're dreams and you chase them.
Bob Simon (11:35):
That's a lot of our dreams. We have the same Atticus Finch dream. So a trial lawyer is we feel like we can help people one client at a time, one cause at a time in the courtroom. And I'm always just infatuated with the ability to do what you do, which is help people on massive scale. Because you've done a lot of policy since you've been in... I mean, I've seen a lot of the gun movement. I've seen a lot of... You broke up a lot of sex abuse, sex trafficking rings recently. Just a lot of things that some other folks were afraid to even mention, like your predecessors and things like this.
(12:12):
Do you ever feel that you have a target on your back because of your advocacy for the working class and for the normal human beings?
Rob Bonta (12:22):
No.
Bob Simon (12:23):
Really?
Rob Bonta (12:23):
And maybe I do, maybe I don't. I don't know. The North Star is, don't squander the opportunity you have to help people. Help as many as you can while you're in the chair and do what you think is right. And my test is, can I explain it to my kids and they'd be proud of their dad and can I tell my parents and they would be proud of me. If I pass those tests, it's the right thing.
(12:48):
So I think you're never wrong if you're doing the right thing. And maybe some people feel a certain way about it, but I try to treat everyone with dignity and respect and I just try to do what's right.
Bob Simon (13:04):
I love it.
Rob Bonta (13:06):
That point you were making about scale, I practiced as an attorney in the San Francisco City Attorney's office and in private practice, the work I did was everything for my client. The sun rose and set with their case. It was everything to them. And I wondered how can I help people in the way that I'm helping this client but at scale.
Bob Simon (13:31):
Bigger level. Bigger level.
Rob Bonta (13:32):
Yeah, more.
Bob Simon (13:35):
Your family has to get involved with all this too. I know you and your wife have married how long? Long time.
Rob Bonta (13:40):
Yes. 27 years.
Bob Simon (13:42):
27 years.
Ryan Stygar (13:43):
Congratulations.
Rob Bonta (13:44):
Thank you.
Ryan Stygar (13:44):
That's right.
Rob Bonta (13:45):
I know. Remember when we were 17 years old-
Ryan Stygar (13:47):
Dirty, but you know.
Bob Simon (13:48):
17 and you were married eight years later. And you had kids early, I mean because your kids now playing professional soccer and stuff like this, but what was it like to give up... Because it's hard to give yourself to public service and have a family. A lot of people tell me... I have a discussion with my wife all the time and actually when I met her, I told her, she's telling me, what do you want to do with your life? I said, "I want to be President of the United States." And we had this conversation before and she was like, "I'll be your Marilyn Monroe but not your Jackie O."
(14:19):
But it's that hard thing. It's like could you be away in Sacramento where you've been, you grew up in Sacramento, but you're going to Sacramento when you were state government, like local government, pre-attorney general, but you're away from your family. So how's that balance... How was it like for you?
Rob Bonta (14:36):
Crossing that threshold from private life in the public service? I hand-wrung about it forever. I desperately wanted to serve people and help them and have an opportunity to engage in the biggest challenges that our society's facing but I liked anonymity, I liked privacy. I loved my family and my family time. I worried about it and wondered about it and thought about it a lot.
(15:02):
My first position, I specifically chose as a local elected official. 1) To see if it was meaningful.
Bob Simon (15:09):
Where did you start?
Rob Bonta (15:10):
I got appointed to a healthcare district board, a special district board.
Bob Simon (15:14):
What does that mean?
Rob Bonta (15:15):
We ran a hospital, an acute care hospital, and a skilled nursing facility.
Bob Simon (15:19):
Mauro's head is parked [inaudible 00:15:21]
Mauro Fiore (15:20):
When you said hospital and acute care. And the ER too? But you're falling behind on that.
Bob Simon (15:30):
Okay. Ryan, could you introduce-
Ryan Stygar (15:32):
Got a job to do.
Bob Simon (15:33):
Could you introduce the next pour and we'll...
Ryan Stygar (15:34):
Yeah, I got, this is actually a good time to take a break and talk about this whiskey we got for you. This is Redwood Empire Emerald Giant from Sonoma County, and this speaks to your first days into public service. I believe you were a California Assembly Member way back at the beginning of the great recession, probably one of the hardest times to be representing the interests of the people at California. So we wanted to take you back to that time-
Rob Bonta (16:03):
Very thoughtful.
Ryan Stygar (16:03):
And take a little journey of how far you've come and the work you've done for California.
Rob Bonta (16:06):
Thank you.
Ryan Stygar (16:07):
So let's crack into it.
Bob Simon (16:08):
This is one that we sourced Mauro and I ask our sponsor at the Booze Outlet that found us, the Redwood Empire.
Mauro Fiore (16:15):
Just take it easy.
Bob Simon (16:15):
This is the Emerald-
Rob Bonta (16:15):
Easy.
Bob Simon (16:16):
The Emerald-
Mauro Fiore (16:18):
I've been drinking all day.
Ryan Stygar (16:19):
Got to keep it clean.
Rob Bonta (16:20):
Jesus.
Ryan Stygar (16:20):
Oh, you can have it Mauro.
Mauro Fiore (16:22):
Bob, you know what I just noticed on this Rip Van Winkle bottle. It says asleep many years in the wood. And you know me, I'm known as sleeping many a day anywhere.
Bob Simon (16:34):
Oh, in the woods, the beaches, the couch. He's been asleep at trial before. One of our friends-
Rob Bonta (16:39):
I'm discriminating, I like that. I will sleep anywhere.
Bob Simon (16:42):
Rob one of our good friends, he tried a case, they had a big result and he was like, I looked over Mauro's sleeping at Council Day we had to kick him to wake him up. He was just taking a rest [inaudible 00:16:51].
Mauro Fiore (16:51):
Just resting my eyes. Resting my eyes.
Rob Bonta (16:54):
Keep them fresh and spry.
Mauro Fiore (16:55):
I wanted the jury to also be relaxed.
Rob Bonta (16:58):
If you're relaxed, they're relaxed, I like it. That's good.
Bob Simon (17:02):
But the Redwood Empire, this one's out of Sonoma.
Ryan Stygar (17:06):
Love it.
Bob Simon (17:06):
This is a California rye whiskey. Well, Mauro's already [inaudible 00:17:10].
Mauro Fiore (17:10):
All right.
Ryan Stygar (17:12):
Good luck.
Bob Simon (17:12):
I get a great color to this one. This is good.
Ryan Stygar (17:17):
Rob, I wanted to ask you, your early days in California.
Bob Simon (17:20):
This is very good. Yeah. I mean compared it to the Pappy before-
Ryan Stygar (17:23):
Oh yeah.
Bob Simon (17:25):
... this one's fantastic.
Ryan Stygar (17:26):
Rob, you grew up watching your parents speak truth to power, but from a point in their lives where they didn't really have-
Rob Bonta (17:32):
Exactly.
Ryan Stygar (17:33):
... power. And now you're in a position where you're arguably the most powerful attorney in California. How does that fight for justice... I mean they call the attorney general the people's attorney.
Bob Simon (17:45):
But he's also the most powerful attorney general in the country, in California
Ryan Stygar (17:49):
I would say. So I'm team in California. Well, how does the fight for justice change when you go from being freshly arrived in California from the Philippines because your parents saw that freedom, democracy was at stake and now you're here and you've worked your way up. So now you have the resources and you're part of the institutions. What does it mean to you to be the peoples' attorney and what does it mean to you to be the power?
Rob Bonta (18:16):
Yeah. Well thank you for asking that. My story, I think, is only possible in California. Very Californian, the fact that I could be born in another country brought here by working class parents, an immigrant mother and went to public schools and had big dreams, I think only possible in California.
(18:47):
I never expected or could have dreamed that I would be in this role. Sometimes I honestly, I can't believe I'm in it when I refer to myself as the attorney general or other people to me, I'll confess to you that sometimes I secretly look on the website to see if my name is actually there and my photo.
Ryan Stygar (19:06):
It was all a dream.
Rob Bonta (19:06):
And I get pumped when I see it because that means I can help more people. I saw my parents, I will say this, they didn't have positional power, a title or a position that had inherent power in it, but they had probably the most powerful, most potent power there is, they had people power. And they side by side with other, every day people, calling for a change to our country's approach to racial justice. Or calling for dignity and respect for those who feed our state and feed our nation as our farm workers or trying to topple a dictator an ocean away.
(19:49):
They were part of those movements that changed our world, changed our country with no positional power. And I saw them ask people with power to side with them to fight their fights with them. And I saw those folks, elected officials, turn their backs on them
Ryan Stygar (20:08):
They said no?
Rob Bonta (20:08):
They said no.
Ryan Stygar (20:09):
When the people they're supposed to protect, ask for help.
Rob Bonta (20:11):
That's it. They had other priorities, they had other people. It made me... My mom tells a story where I said, "Mom, when I grow up, I want to be someone who listens. Listen to the people and help the people." And so that's been my goal. That's been why I like to see myself as the peoples' attorney, the fight for everyday people, especially the ones who have been forgotten or cast aside and need a champion.
Bob Simon (20:34):
A lot of my friends that when I first going to introduce to you, the first thing they said is, "Rob Bonta will listen." And they said, "He'll take the time to maybe not know a subject, be educated about it, but at least have a discussion and listen." So that's pretty powerful that you're, you said that as a kid because it holds true.
(20:50):
I've said some off-the-wall shit to you before. You said, "No Bob, we can't make booze legal for 15 year olds. That sounds ridiculous." But it's not so ridiculous. Am I right?
Mauro Fiore (21:02):
16.
Bob Simon (21:03):
There we go. You're the voice Mauro. It's a negotiation.
Ryan Stygar (21:06):
The attorney general who listens.
Rob Bonta (21:10):
One of the most underrated skills in leadership to listen, to be curious, to be interested, to know that you don't know everything, to be willing to learn and grow with others.
Ryan Stygar (21:19):
Rob, I wanted to ask you, and it goes along with you being someone who listens now that you're in the position you're in. California's cost-of-living crisis, it truly is a crisis and I think anyone who's, especially attorneys like us where we work with working-class people, we hear the calls for help. And your Department of Justice has taken a particularly Assertive role in what we call "housing justice." Can you tell me a little bit about why that was important to you and what you're trying to accomplish now?
Rob Bonta (21:50):
Yeah, absolutely. When I look at this role, California Attorney General, I want people to think their attorney general is fighting for them, is their champion, is beside them, who understands them and is taking on the issues that are important to them. You can't be fighting for Californians if you're not fighting for housing affordability and access to housing.
(22:18):
It's a dream of many but more and more out of reach to most. And you have everyday people who are wondering where their kids are going to live when they grow up.
Ryan Stygar (22:27):
The right to call California home is slipping through our fingers, it feels like.
Rob Bonta (22:32):
It's ridiculously unaffordable. Average or median price of a home over $800,000. And the numbers just don't add up. And the dream of homeownership should be accessible to more. And we felt that we needed to be part of the solution. It was something I tackled and addressed as a legislator and wanted to be very, essentially, involved in as a AG. So we enforce California's housing laws very aggressively. We pushed back against NIMBYism, not in my backyard ism, where-
Bob Simon (23:09):
There's a few cities that were pushing back hard.
Rob Bonta (23:11):
There's a few. There's a few.
Bob Simon (23:13):
South of us, North of you.
Mauro Fiore (23:13):
They got something called Builder's Remedy now.
Rob Bonta (23:17):
They get the Builder's Remedy if they don't plan-
Mauro Fiore (23:18):
That means the city doesn't want to fall in line, they can build whatever you want. It's called Builder's Remedy. So it's really-
Rob Bonta (23:24):
A version of that. Yes, the builders are able to build more freely if they're not compliant with the housing element and their plans to meet their regional housing needs allocation.
Mauro Fiore (23:34):
I always tell people California is a great place for the rich. If you don't have a lot of money, there's lots of other places that are really nice that are a lot cheaper than here. This place is so expensive now. That-
Bob Simon (23:46):
The way I look at it, I didn't grow up here. I feel like it's a privilege to be in California and it's usually my privilege to not deal with humidity. I'm not a hot guy. I'm sweating right now.
Ryan Stygar (23:57):
You're a hot guy, come one.
Bob Simon (24:00):
I'm a hot boy. No, but it comes with a certain... Most of my neighbors where I live are very altruistic people. We talk about this all the time. Everybody that we're with is more about helping other folks than themselves. And I don't know if it's a community thing or if it's a California thing, but when I was a kid, I dreamed of being in California.
(24:25):
I grew up working class in Pittsburgh and it was a dream to come here. Now that I'm here, it's a privilege. And I do realize that it's much harder to come here and sustain a living wage for folks to be here and it can continue to be a problem, but it's not a California problem, in my opinion, it's a world problem where you're having a wage gap that it is growing substantially. And I feel like if we don't figure this out, it's going to be a huge problem that people cannot dig out from.
Rob Bonta (24:57):
I completely agree about your view of California, greatest place on Earth. Greatest state in the greatest country on Earth. And not without it's
Bob Simon (25:06):
Should be a country.
Rob Bonta (25:06):
... problems.
Bob Simon (25:07):
Should be a country [inaudible 00:25:11]. See that Freudian slip. 5th largest country.
Rob Bonta (25:12):
It's a nation state, fifth-largest economy in the world and not without our challenges. And it shouldn't be a place where only the rich can thrive. Anyone should be able to thrive here. And growing on affordability is a challenge to that. So we are making the dream of homeownership available to more by pushing local jurisdictions to build under state law. I mean all this [inaudible 00:25:36] at Huntington Beach is a problem. It is wrong. They are intentionally violating the law knowing exactly what they're doing.
Bob Simon (25:46):
Wasn't Chuck Liddell [inaudible 00:25:48] wasn't he their mayor? Wasn't he there in the fighter [inaudible 00:25:51]
Rob Bonta (25:50):
I think he was there at one point-
Mauro Fiore (25:52):
I think it was-
Rob Bonta (25:53):
... maybe on the City Council.
Mauro Fiore (25:54):
... Tito Ortiz.
Rob Bonta (25:54):
Tito Ortiz.
Bob Simon (25:55):
Oh, Tito Ortiz.
Rob Bonta (25:56):
Not the Iceman.
Bob Simon (25:59):
One of those.
Rob Bonta (26:00):
Someone he fought in the championship bout.
Mauro Fiore (26:03):
See, I know these things.
Rob Bonta (26:04):
I know. That's good. That's good knowledge.
Bob Simon (26:06):
I'm going to do the last pour here because I finished and this is heavy pours. Guys, I'm going to kind of... I've never opened this bottle. It's been sitting up on my shelf for a long time. It's a bottle of Blanton's and Blanton's is a... it's a good whiskey. It's a good bourbon. It's a good bourbon. It's not one of my top 10, but some of the ones are. But somebody got this engraved for me and it says my eyes can't push it away. "Number one sleazy attorney."
Mauro Fiore (26:38):
You know who gave it to you?
Bob Simon (26:39):
I know who gave it to me. No, this is a great story because-
Mauro Fiore (26:41):
But you're like the least sleazy attorney.
Bob Simon (26:42):
No, this is where... So my secret, Ryan might be the only one that knows this. My secret love in life is I go into the Daily Wire and I troll them. Every day I'll go on Ben Shapiro or I'll go on Matt, whatever his name is, and I'll just say something snarky or just to mess with these guys.
(27:02):
So I do this all the time just to get a rise out of people, just to get them to critically think. Just ask questions and people go crazy. And one time I did this on Facebook and I get a million comments. These people do stuff and I just ask questions and just try to redirect. Did you actually think about this? Like critical thinking, these things. And I got into this one argument, what do they call it when you're in a forum thing?
Ryan Stygar (27:23):
We call that a pissing match I believe.
Bob Simon (27:25):
Pissing match.
Ryan Stygar (27:25):
It's a scientific term, yeah.
Bob Simon (27:27):
That is actually in the-
Mauro Fiore (27:27):
You're a keyboard warrior.
Bob Simon (27:31):
Keyboard warrior. So this one lady we were getting into a little bit, and I'm just keep asking questions and she looked me up and she was like, "You're a sleazy lawyer, you're a personal injury lawyer." And she went to this thing and I just continued to ask questions and do things. And after, it was like a month, she had reached out to me because she was in a situation that she needed help with. And she was like... She called me. She's like, "I'm kind of embarrassed to call you, but I got to tell you that you started to talk... What you were saying was...
(28:02):
Because I think that we all are, most of us are reasonable human beings and most people are in the middle are logical and if we get out of the polarized sides of left or right, we could have a normal conversation. We ended up having a normal conversation.
(28:16):
I started on the keyboard and I just tried to educate her and stuff and then she reached out to me, found my number. My dad's wife works at our firm and she was like, so-and-so called you and she wants to send you a bottle of bourbon. I said, "Wait, why?" Because she had reached out to me, DMd me, and I helped her through a legal issue and helped her get an attorney whose actual friend of ours, which we'll talk off-air. And she had a really good result, because she said she needed a sleazy lawyer to get her job done. And she said, "Thank you so much for being their most reasonable adult in that room."
(28:46):
I was just talking shit on Ben Shapiro's page.
Rob Bonta (28:48):
Wow.
Bob Simon (28:48):
I'll say his name. Ben Shapiro. I think you're a piece of shit. But anyway,
Ryan Stygar (28:53):
Now he's going to hire you in a month.
Bob Simon (28:57):
These guys use their power for bad and they just want to disrupt folks, but just get in there. But she sent me this to my home and it says, "Number one, sleazy lawyer."
Rob Bonta (29:06):
Love it. Love it.
Bob Simon (29:06):
I haven't opened this bottle yet, waiting for the opportunity because Rob, I think you have the opportunity to bridge left and right. You have to drink. You can't mix. That would actually, they'll kick you.
Rob Bonta (29:16):
Violate, yeah.
Bob Simon (29:18):
The bourbon gods would probably kick you in nuts, I think.
Rob Bonta (29:21):
Let's not have that.
Bob Simon (29:24):
You got to finish that one up.
Mauro Fiore (29:26):
Take it easy.
Bob Simon (29:28):
I'll give him a light pour.
Mauro Fiore (29:29):
Maybe he doesn't like [inaudible 00:29:31].
Ryan Stygar (29:30):
Merciful.
Mauro Fiore (29:31):
We know he doesn't like to gamble. He doesn't like to gamble. I think he might be French. Think he's French.
Bob Simon (29:36):
French.
Mauro Fiore (29:38):
I've never met a Filipino like this.
Bob Simon (29:40):
I'm at a weird angle right now because when I look at Rob, your hair is so amazing and I can't stop talking about this. There's like three or four different colors. It's perfectly like... I'm very like this.
Rob Bonta (29:52):
Very kind of you.
Mauro Fiore (29:53):
It is pretty amazing, I agree. And look at that hairline too. The guy's, 53, 54 years old.
Ryan Stygar (29:59):
It's a golden age for hair in Sacramento right now.
Mauro Fiore (30:01):
You haven't lost the hair out of that forehead yet.
Ryan Stygar (30:01):
Golden age of hair.
Bob Simon (30:01):
What are you guys taking up on in Sacramento.
Mauro Fiore (30:04):
Look at this forehead I have, man. Jesus. It's getting bigger. My forehead's getting bigger. I wish it was down there like yours.
Rob Bonta (30:14):
You sleep more it will go down.
Mauro Fiore (30:15):
Yeah, maybe in [inaudible 00:30:17].
Ryan Stygar (30:17):
I think a big forehead's nice on you.
Mauro Fiore (30:18):
Yeah, I don't know.
Bob Simon (30:21):
Because you do a lot of things, which I consider nonpartisan passions. Where both sides of the table can be... Like, I can get behind this cause and is it an intentional thing? Is it a human thing? Is it a dad, a father thing? What is that like for you? Because you had a lot of causes that I'm like, "Yeah, why is not everybody fighting for this issue?"
Rob Bonta (30:44):
Yeah, I think most things in terms of steps, actions we can take to make our society better, stronger, safer, more fair, people agree with. I think we focus a lot on the smaller number of things that we disagree with and it takes all the air out of the room. But people want safe streets. They want a good job. They want economic mobility. They want healthcare. They want a planet for tomorrow for their kids and their grandkids. They want good schools. That's all universal. And so when we're focusing on keeping our streets safe, there should be universal support for it. We're taking on organized retail crime. We're taking on hate crimes, we're taking on human trafficking gun safety.
Bob Simon (31:28):
They don't realize that you're taking on the retail crime. People like, "California. Oh my God, you can't even be in a Target in San Francisco." But you guys have task force and things to be able to do this.
Rob Bonta (31:37):
We do. We're part of multiple organized retail crime task forces. We're doing arrests, investigations, arrest, take-downs all the time. We're taking people involved in organized retail crime off the streets and these are multi-million dollar operations. And so people, they have the narrative, they decided what it's going to be and don't let inconvenient facts get in the way. I mean, that is not a way to see the world. Facts matter. Truth matters. People need to understand it, appreciate it, accept it. And so we just focus on the job.
(32:07):
We can't focus on what the commentators are saying, what the haters are saying. California is great. It is not without challenges, but part of being great is knowing when you're falling short and confronting those things and taking them on. Thus, we're taking on housing unaffordability, thus we're taking on organized retail crime. Directly and fully frontally tackling those issues.
Bob Simon (32:34):
Don't say full-frontal in front of Mauro.
Rob Bonta (32:38):
I'm going to keep talking so he doesn't take that as an opportunity to interject or comment.
Bob Simon (32:43):
He grabbed that bottle over their with the eco-tag.
Rob Bonta (32:48):
He's like, I'm interested.
Mauro Fiore (32:49):
Do you remember Samantha Bee? She had a show called Full Frontal. Did you ever watch that show on CNN? Samantha Bee was like a political commentary.
Bob Simon (32:55):
That was on Cinemax, probably.
Mauro Fiore (32:59):
Samantha Bee was a great... It was funny. She was really funny. Anyways, back to my drink.
Bob Simon (33:07):
Mauro's old school California, man. He's been here-
Mauro Fiore (33:09):
I was born and raised in California.
Ryan Stygar (33:10):
That's an interesting thing that you bring up. We talk about the facts should matter, truth should matter. The polls that I have seen, and you can go anywhere, find any poll you want. The concern about violent crime among Californians, the concern seems to be growing, but the latest statistics we see shows that your office's efforts are working.
(33:30):
So what's the bridge there? Why are people insisting that things that are working, are not working?
Rob Bonta (33:39):
I think perception is reality for some people, even if that perception is not founded in fact. And so narratives matter. What people listen to for their facts, their news even if they're not news, matters. Social media platforms, Fox News, people start believing things that aren't necessarily true and it matters how you feel. If someone is fearful of crime, has experienced crime, traumatized by a crime, knows someone who's been the victim of crime or they've been a victim of crime, telling them that the stats show that crime is down-
Ryan Stygar (34:18):
Doesn't matter.
Rob Bonta (34:19):
... is not particularly helpful to them. And so you have to acknowledge where people are at. If they're worried and anxious and fearful, it's important to address that. But the facts still matter. It's important to gauge progress with facts year over year. What was crime the year before? How is it now? Are we making progress? We're making progress. But there's still more to do.
(34:43):
There was a time when you couldn't... You could have any opinion that you wanted, but you couldn't choose your own facts. Now you choose your own facts and opinion. The facts that are inconvenient you ignore and facts with air quotes that may not be facts, you use those to support your views and that's not a healthy way to engage in democracy and to make decisions.
Bob Simon (35:09):
I just want to appreciate that answer after three pours of very heavy alcohol content whiskey.
Rob Bonta (35:17):
Thank you.
Ryan Stygar (35:18):
That's actually pretty impressive.
Rob Bonta (35:18):
I agree.
Bob Simon (35:18):
This is very good. Yeah, this is-
Mauro Fiore (35:22):
He's holding up well.
Bob Simon (35:22):
This is very well.
Ryan Stygar (35:24):
Let's pour again and try another round. Because you're right and that's why it's so important to be someone who listens because to someone who's been impacted by crime in their community, you're right. You could tell them, oh, it's down 90%. It's like, well, I'm the 10% that matters.
Bob Simon (35:39):
We're in our third port here. And the security detail for Rob is like, you got to wrap this up, but they got to drag us out of here, Rob.
Rob Bonta (35:45):
I like it.
Bob Simon (35:46):
Where do you have to go at it? What do you do next? What's for Rob Bonta, actually next after this?
Rob Bonta (35:52):
To your point about family, public life, I'm going to get on a plane and go home.
Bob Simon (35:57):
Oh, nice.
Rob Bonta (35:59):
When I was in Sacramento, I came home every night.
Bob Simon (36:02):
That's awesome.
Rob Bonta (36:03):
And I took the train to work and I took the train back and I wanted to be home with my kids. I didn't want them to think that their dad's job was taking dad away from them. And that was something that was important to me. I love being attorney general. It's incredible. And the most important titles I'll ever have will be husband to Mia and dad to Reina and Iliana and Andres.
