Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Libraries Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Blog Pricing
Podcast Image

Valuetainment

“Lipstick On A Pig” - Newsom TORCHED Over $19M PR Spin Deal

11 Apr 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: Why did California spend $19 million on a PR firm?

0.031 - 9.401 Patrick Bet-David

Guess who decides to spend $19 million of taxpayer money in the state of California to hire a PR firm to make them look better? Guess who?

0

9.561 - 10.282 Adam

No, tell us.

0

10.302 - 35.35 Patrick Bet-David

A guy named Gavin Newsom. No way. He wouldn't say. I don't believe it. $19 million of taxpayer funds on a New York PR firm to polish California's image. The Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development awarded PR powerhouse Edelman a contract up to $19 million. to burnish the golden state's reputation, KCRA reported.

0

35.45 - 55.933 Patrick Bet-David

Edelman, which also does work on behalf of mega companies like Dove, Starbucks, eBay, and Heineken, will be tasked to combat negative narratives amplified online and partisan media about California while promoting the state's economy and tourism. The company, considered one of the largest PR firms in the nation, also has offices in L.A. and San Francisco.

0

55.973 - 74.672 Patrick Bet-David

The contract begins on April 6th and will run through then- End of the year, which nearly coincides with the end of governor's term in 2027, the Office of Business of Economic Development, known as GO-Biz, posted their request for proposals last month stipulating the small businesses be considered for their first contract. Vinny, thoughts?

74.652 - 93.992 Vinny

So basically, instead of fixing California's reality, they're spending millions to polish California's reputation, which is abysmal, okay? Forget about the speed rail. All I've been seeing is documentary after documentary on the speed rails and the reporting in California, billions. The homelessness, 24 billion, which made it go up. And I'll talk about New York if we get to that, Pat.

94.012 - 114.42 Vinny

But it's like positive $19 million. So you mean to tell me that Californians who are struggling, you want to talk about struggling? They don't trust the fire departments, especially in these rich Malibu and the Palisades and all these people. The mayor is over. Where was she? Was she in Cuba doing some event when all the fires were happening?

114.481 - 123.255 Tom

No, no, no. She was all the way over in Africa, you know, where there was a transition of leadership or something was going on. And she went anyway. No, the crisis was there.

123.235 - 145.872 Vinny

And I'm telling you right now, Penn, you said it perfectly at the beginning. There is no amount of money to change the reputation of what's going on in California, but it still baffles my mind. And I think you said it last week. I haven't heard one person say, yeah, dude, I've got a place in California. And I feel bad for the people there because they have to pretend. Everything is okay.

Chapter 2: What are the criticisms of Newsom's PR strategy?

232.082 - 242.641 Patrick Bet-David

81%. 81% at the power of a tweet to the market, how they react. And obviously Tom's on that list as well, Tom Steyer, but he's a different story. Tom, your thoughts on this with California.

0

242.661 - 267.878 Tom

With California, what I dove into, I'm not going to repeat what Vinny said. I agree with every syllable of what you just said. Thank you. And more. Cast with combating negative narratives. So that's your job. We need some help with the negative narratives. It's like a guy sits in his front yard, you know, slaughtering pigs as children are walking to school and then holding a barbecue.

0

268.499 - 289.551 Tom

And he wants to combat the negative narratives that slaughtering a pig is such an ugly job. Well, then stop it. Stop it. You want to combat negative narratives. How about turn the state? How about do things for the people? How about build the rail or say, you know what? You're not going to hear about the rail anymore. It's not going to happen. That's what's going on here.

0

289.652 - 310.076 Tom

They think it's a narrative game. They think if you just change the narrative, you just spin the narrative because and if you look at it. Gavin Newsom is a narrative machine. He can't run on leadership without a narrative. He can't run on numbers. He can't run on success without a narrative. And you look at the two things they said, economy and tourism.

0

310.476 - 323.759 Tom

So you're going to see we're now the fourth largest, fifth largest economy in the world. And look at all the tourists are still coming to Disneyland. And look at all the number of people who come to visit Disneyland. You know, California. Well, it's also a dirty little secret that sometimes, Pat, they count in the tourist things.

324.019 - 333.062 Tom

Like if you and I went back to California and went to a wedding or a funeral, Pat, which, you know, we do from time to time. Do you know that they would count us in tourist stats?

334.223 - 334.564 Vinny

Really?

334.584 - 352.603 Tom

California, yeah. You can look at the corruption of numbers and the way you count these things. So you don't have any numbers to talk about. You don't have things. So they're going to talk about tourism. They're going to talk about fourth largest economy and combat negative narratives. It's not a negative narrative. Nobody's rebuilding their homes and all the things you talked about.

352.583 - 353.966 Tom

It's not a negative narrative.

Chapter 3: How does the panel view California's current issues?

353.986 - 377.369 Tom

They're closing hospices that don't exist that were stealing money that was meant for truly people that needed it to get back on the horse so they could ride off into a career and into some sort of contributing member of society. This is just astonishing to me. You don't need a PR firm to combat narratives. You need leadership to make change.

0

377.389 - 398.585 Vinny

Thank you. And Tom, $19 million, Pat, that's not like just a drop in a bucket. $19 million from taxpayer money. The people that are suffering the most are paying for him to lie. Like, make me look good. Make me look like you have blood all over you. You've killed everybody. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, no. I didn't kill. Make me look like I... Like, blood fell on me from the roof. No, no.

0

398.946 - 404.193 Vinny

You killed this person. Like, it just drives me crazy. And I hope this gets to people that are voting, man.

0

404.213 - 423.057 Patrick Bet-David

They're only doing this for one reason, because this guy's running for president. They're not doing it for the governor election. They're doing it for a presidential campaign. And Gavin is using California's taxpayer money to fund this 2028 presidential election. That's what he's doing with this, because the better California looks, the higher likelihood he wins presidency in 2028. Adam, thoughts?

0

423.07 - 442.209 Adam

Look, you know I don't got a lot of love for California, but I'm going to give Gavin Newsom credit right now. He's an incredible politician. I'm just going to say it what it is. He says all the right things. He looks the part. He's a great communicator. He looks presidential, you know. But then reality hits, and you realize that it's just complete lipstick on a pig.

443.03 - 463.436 Adam

Because as much as he's a great politician, he's one of the worst executors you can possibly find. He's an incredible governor. horrible CEO. No accountability. You know, they have the super majority in California, so whatever he wants gets done. It's all looks and no results. And I respect that. Why get stuff done if you look like you're getting stuff done?

463.456 - 483.893 Adam

Respect to you, Gavin with the good hair. It reminds me of this. You remember when I think she came to visit San Francisco, which is like a literal shithole? Sorry for cursing. Poop maps everywhere. And what did Gavin Newsom do, the governor of California? For that one week, San Francisco looked immaculate. Remember when they cleaned up the whole city? Oh, of course.

483.913 - 486.496 Adam

They got rid of the homeless people. They got rid of the homeless people.

486.516 - 487.477 Vinny

Yeah, Xi Jinping was coming through.

Chapter 4: What impact does the PR campaign have on California's image?

496.286 - 514.607 Adam

Back to corruption. Back to homelessness. Back to crime. Back to rampant ridiculousness. Back to the cost of living. But it was all lipstick on a pig. That's Gavin Newsom. You have no idea, Gavin Newsom, how much I respect that. Why act good when you can just pretend like you're acting good? It's incredible. He's one of the most gifted politicians I've ever seen.

0

514.627 - 518.512 Adam

He's pretending that he's doing a great job. Respect to you, Gavin Newsom.

0

519.274 - 533.634 Tom

Yeah, I think he's actually executed very well. I think he's executed, put to death opportunities for middle class Californians. I think he's executed, put to death a sensible budget. So if you want to talk about true execution, I think he's doing a pretty good job.

0

533.895 - 540.163 Adam

Yeah. It's one of those things where it's a great state to visit. You get in, you get out, and ain't nobody trying to live in California.

0

540.523 - 564.324 Patrick Bet-David

Unless you have to. At Valuetainment, we are aggressively growing. This thing started off with just me and Mario and a camera to nine employees when we were in Boca Raton, to 30 employees when we were at Dixie, to 60 employees when it was Dixie and our federal highway property, to now 164, 165 employees and growing rapidly. aggressively, and we are out there looking for hires.

564.344 - 578.188 Patrick Bet-David

So before you see this video, I want to tell you exactly what is one thing we're for sure looking for. A full-stack dev engineer, seven years experience in end-to-end solution architecture and design for scalable systems, number two.

578.168 - 600.177 Patrick Bet-David

track record in mentoring and developing other senior engineers in architecture, 10 years in experience in coding in all major languages, all of them, comprehensive understanding of AI coding and best practices. On-site, South Florida, we are paying real low, strong business acumen. If you know somebody like that, we're hiring. Rob, if you want to play the clip,

600.157 - 615.178 Patrick Bet-David

The opportunities are massive right now for the people that are inside. They're seeing what's going on here. We just put up an incredible event. We're working on a couple SaaS products that are growing exponentially that no one knows about. But, Rob, go ahead and play the clip of what happens here at Vitamin Headquarters.

615.158 - 631.879 Patrick Bet-David

Many times when people think about Valuetainment, all they think about is a podcast, but it's a lot more than that. It's nine companies working together on an 11-acre campus. If I was to give you a virtual tour here, you'll see the HR department hiring, talent acquisition. We have full-stack developers that are working on MNAC and higher metrics.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.