Latest / Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast / Aaron Ford on Running for Nevada Governor | 359

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Aaron Ford on Running for Nevada Governor | 359 · Hey BigHead: The Vegas Local Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_04: Oh, Julie, here we are again.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: You always start with my name.
0:04
SPEAKER_04: It's kind of like my thing.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: I know.
0:06
SPEAKER_04: Some people have like a slogan or you know, some sort of tagline they start with.
0:10
SPEAKER_04: I just start with Julie.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: Good.
0:11
SPEAKER_01: It's a good slogan for the show.
0:12
SPEAKER_01: I run the whole thing anyway.
0:14
SPEAKER_04: Okay, let's not get ahead of ourselves again.
0:16
SPEAKER_04: But I'll be honest, we had Congresswoman Susie Lee on the show a few weeks ago and learned a lot about the city that we call home, the businesses that we work with, the issues that affect us each and every day.
0:28
SPEAKER_04: And this, hey Big Ed show, we're not a political show at all.
0:31
SPEAKER_04: We know the bare bones basics about politics.
0:34
SPEAKER_04: But we had such a good time with her that I thought, why not run it back?
0:37
SPEAKER_01: Let's do it again.
0:37
SPEAKER_04: Let's do it again.
0:38
SPEAKER_04: So today we have someone that I'm very excited to introduce.
0:42
SPEAKER_04: He's somebody that's been fighting for Nevada as our state's attorney general.
0:46
SPEAKER_04: And now he he is giving Joe Lombardo a run for his money in the governor's race.
0:50
SPEAKER_04: Aaron Ford is here with us.
0:52
SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the show, sir.
0:53
SPEAKER_04: Hey man, great to see you.
0:55
SPEAKER_04: Uh Julie.
0:56
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
0:57
SPEAKER_01: Julie.
0:58
SPEAKER_04: Yes.
0:58
SPEAKER_04: You're starting right.
0:59
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
0:59
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
1:00
SPEAKER_01: You say it better than he does.
1:03
SPEAKER_04: He's media trained.
1:04
SPEAKER_04: He's he's he's he's well he's well prepared.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm just gonna get my name right, so that's a great start for this interview.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: I did, so it's Aaron for it.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: It's Aaron, that's right.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: My mama calls me Aaron, so that's my name, right?
1:15
SPEAKER_04: Everybody calls you Aaron.
1:16
SPEAKER_04: Uh 90% of the people call you Aaron.
1:18
SPEAKER_04: I'm assuming it doesn't, but does it bother you when people call you Aaron?
1:21
SPEAKER_00: No, no.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look, I uh correct him because my name is not Aaron, it's spelled Aaron, it just pronounced Aaron.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: But now because it is Kim Pill stuff, I'm always called A Aaron.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: That's the most annoying of all.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: But I do respond, I do respond.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: Or worse, how about this?
1:36
SPEAKER_04: Listen, I get it.
1:37
SPEAKER_04: Thankfully, I have Julie here who spells everything out phrenetically for me.
1:41
SPEAKER_04: So if I do happen to slip up today, I apologize for you.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: Don't do it.
1:46
SPEAKER_04: I heard you about the Breakfast Club.
1:47
SPEAKER_04: You called them out on it.
1:49
SPEAKER_04: For sure you did.
1:50
SPEAKER_04: Uh but no, thank you so much for taking the time uh and coming here.
1:53
SPEAKER_04: Um we're gonna talk about a lot of things going on around this state, and I'm really excited about it.
1:57
SPEAKER_04: Um, but before we talk about this incredible city and this incredible state that we live on, we have I want to talk about something a little personal.
2:04
SPEAKER_04: I want to start, start with that.
2:06
SPEAKER_04: You have something special in your life, a little, a little sweet treat, if I may, that you keep around to remind you of why you are doing what you do.
2:14
SPEAKER_04: Uh Julie actually pulled this up in the research and she was very excited for this for this segment.
2:19
SPEAKER_01: I love a sweet treat.
2:20
SPEAKER_04: Do you want to take it away?
2:21
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I learned that you keep something around your office, around your home to remind you of why you're doing what you're doing, and it ties back to your family.
2:30
SPEAKER_01: So we decided that you also need to have one at the Hey Big Head show.
2:34
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
2:34
SPEAKER_04: So it's early in the morning.
2:36
SPEAKER_01: The whole team has one.
2:37
SPEAKER_04: The whole team's got a score bar here.
2:39
SPEAKER_01: We all have scorebars.
2:41
SPEAKER_01: I've never had a score bar before in my life.
2:42
SPEAKER_04: What would what is a score bar?
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Man, it's so yummy.
2:45
SPEAKER_00: It is uh, so it's it's kind of like a heath bar, okay, but it's better than a heath bar.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: Because it has the right combination of toffee and chocolate on top of it.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: The heath bar guys too much chocolate on it.
2:54
SPEAKER_00: But so, yes, nice little crunchy little little dessert, you know, that you, you know, you know, candy bar that it's quite yummy, and you're right.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: I keep it uh all around my house.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I keep it at work, and uh it is absolutely a visual reminder of uh uh of my childhood and what it is I'm fighting for to these days.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: What's the meaning of it for you?
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Well, first off, uh um those sitting around my house, they are sweet treats, but they are probably stale.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Now, my my wife, every once in a while, she'll cheat and she'll eat one and replace it.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't eat them, I kind of keep them there again because uh it reminds me.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: So my dad worked at a grocery store when we were young kids.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh they they worked hard.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: My you know, my dad, um, my folks divorced when I was 10, but you know, and I've learned something from each of them.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: My dad showed me what hard work looks like.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh he would do anything to take care of his family.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: And he worked at a grocery store in the produce section.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: And one day after uh work, he was dumping out some rotten fruits and vegetables or something like that.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And next to the dumpster behind the grocery store, um he found a big box of chocolate candies.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Um I came, he brought them home.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: And and I come to find out later on that Safeway, the store he worked at, was throwing all these candies away because they were stale and they couldn't sell them.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: But the Fords got to eat.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: So my daddy brought home these stale candy bars, and for a couple of weeks in a row, I would, my brother and I ate these stale candy bars for dinner or took them to lunch.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: And uh my favorite candy bar from that day was the score bar, S-K-O-R.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so to this day, I keep a scorebar on my nightstand at home.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh I keep it on my desk at home.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: I keep it on every desk I have in the office in Reno, Carson City, and then Vegas.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's the first thing I see when I wake up.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: I said all throughout the day when I'm at work wherever I am, uh it's the last thing I see when I go to bed at night.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's a purposeful, intentional reminder to me about what struggle looks like, where I come from, and who it is I'm representing, those who uh are having a hard time just getting by, even though they're working hard, like my father did.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm grateful that you got me a score bar.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, I was eating stale score bars, so when I had my first not stale score bar a boy, I was in heaven.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: So I will anticipate eating this for lunch today, like I did back in the day.
4:53
SPEAKER_04: Well, listen, we won't be offended if you don't eat it in front of us.
4:56
SPEAKER_04: I know that somewhere down the road you'll enjoy it.
4:58
SPEAKER_04: But uh it it it's with life moving so fast, especially somebody in your position and you know where you're hoping to go in the future too.
5:05
SPEAKER_04: So many things can just happen day in, day out that you forget about the small things.
5:09
SPEAKER_04: You you forget about where you started.
5:11
SPEAKER_04: It's so easy just to be consumed by what's going on today and what's going on tomorrow that you kind of forget about you know the the simpler days or the the the harder days back then.
5:20
SPEAKER_04: Um so it that's great that you have uh something to remind you of that.
5:24
SPEAKER_04: I love that.
5:25
SPEAKER_04: Uh so we mentioned that you are you're running for governor, uh going against Joe Lombardo, who is well he's going against me.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: That's thank you for clarifying.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm running for the office of attorney general.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean a governor, I'm running for the people of the state.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: He's running against me, that's clear.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: Well said.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: He is good.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: I know he is good.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm a trained in medium, Julie.
5:46
SPEAKER_04: I got it.
5:47
SPEAKER_04: This isn't his first day on the road.
5:49
SPEAKER_04: Uh so I'm a big hypothetical guy, so I'm gonna ask you a hypothetical question, and I want you to help answer this for me.
5:54
SPEAKER_04: So let's say, for example, I make 55k a year, and it's that's around the medium income of what's here in Vegas.
6:01
SPEAKER_04: I I'm renting, I have a kid, and I'm paying my own health insurance.
6:06
SPEAKER_04: You, as my next governor, how are you gonna change my life within a year from that?
6:13
SPEAKER_00: Well, look, um, if you're making$55k a year, I suspect you're having a hard time buying a home.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: Um here in Las Vegas, the average um entry-level home price is almost$500,000.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I think it was$480,000, it was the last uh number that I heard.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh in northern Nevada, it's around$700,000, right?
6:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so you're not likely able to afford that home.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and part of the reason is because we have corporations in our state that are buying up homes by the bulk and pricing us out of our neighborhoods.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: There was a headline, um, and because it was a headline, I will you know, quote the headline, there was a company that bought, uh I might have my number wrong here, but 50,000 homes, let's say.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: For$300,000 each.
6:52
SPEAKER_00: And then they sold some of those homes to themselves for$700,000 each, immediately raising the uh the the average price for homes in that neighborhood, making it that much more difficult to people to compete.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: How how can you compete for a 30-year mortgage when they're buying these homes in cash and jacking up the prices?
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And you know, frankly, our governor could have done something about that.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, he could have signed a bill that would have limited how many homes a corporation would buy up.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, because even Donald Trump agrees with me on this.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Corporations don't live in homes, people live in homes.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh instead of signing that bill, he vetoed it.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Um he vetoed it the first time, he killed it the second time by telling his Senate Republican colleagues to kill it so he didn't have to veto it.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh I'm gonna sign that bill.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: That's going to free up some levels of homes, some some some amount of homes, so that you can actually compete and buy a home.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: Um you're even having a hard time renting a place, let alone buying a house right now.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: The average rental cost, as I understand it, is probably uh over now, but uh last I checked it was$2,000 a month.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: Um and they can charge you three times as much for a security deposit.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: That's six thousand dollars before you can even move into an apartment.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Right.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: Um and that's very expensive, like especially if you're making$55,000 a year, right?
8:03
SPEAKER_00: So uh what we're gonna do is sign a bill that limits how much they can charge you for a security deposit to one month's rent.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: Um and and that's going to free up an opportunity for people to move into apartments.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, you you you mentioned um uh health care.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Um at$55,000 a year.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: I suspect that um uh health insurance is expensive.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: Um and part of the health care issue is our prescription drugs.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a young lady in Mendon, Nevada, up in northern Nevada, or rural part of town, and she gave me the story, a true story of her at a grocery store buying a basket full of groceries, and it was, you know, filled, and she went over to the pharmacy section to pick up her prescription.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: She looked at the price of that prescription, and she left those groceries right in the middle of the aisle because she couldn't afford both.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Your governor could have done something about that.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: He could have signed a bill that would have limited the cost of certain prescription drugs to the Medicare negotiated price for everybody.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: That would have helped her.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: But you know what he did?
8:57
SPEAKER_00: He vetoed that bill.
8:59
SPEAKER_00: And he's subsequently taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical companies.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: This demonstrates to you um who he's aligned with, the corporations are not the core of our state.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: It's people.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and I'm gonna sign that bill, right?
9:10
SPEAKER_00: These are ways in which in the with within the year you will be able to uh get some relief uh from um um this Lombardo Trump economy that is that is uh destroying our ability to survive, let alone thrive.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: You know, and I'm I'm very fortunate.
9:26
SPEAKER_01: I have a military spouse, and we were able to assume a loan when we purchased our home here in Vegas.
9:31
SPEAKER_01: And I'm also fortunate enough to be on health care or on Tri-Care, which is you know a an affordable health care for our family.
9:38
SPEAKER_01: But something we still struggle with because there are no military benefits for it, is the gas prices.
9:45
SPEAKER_01: And I think, let me see, I looked it up, I believe it's over 80% of Las Vegans are driving to work versus taking public transit, because at the end of the day, we don't have great public transit here.
9:55
SPEAKER_01: Um and I just feel like everybody across the country, but as we are a Vegas local show, everybody here is feeling the pressure from that.
10:03
SPEAKER_01: What what are your thoughts on what we can do about gas and affordability along that line?
10:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, first off, let me show a distinction between the current governor uh and me.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh he says it's nothing he can do as governor about affordability.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh those are his words.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: And he says that anyone who tells you that they can do something about affordability, uh, we're on the radio, I won't use his quote, but you will figure it out.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: He says it's BS.
10:28
SPEAKER_03: Mm-hmm.
10:28
SPEAKER_04: First of all, you you somewhat curse on The Breakfast Club.
10:31
SPEAKER_04: You can curse on this podcast.
10:32
SPEAKER_04: I mean I know your team doesn't want you to be like, exactly right.
10:35
SPEAKER_04: That's okay.
10:35
SPEAKER_04: I heard about that.
10:36
SPEAKER_04: But you my guess my team, my wife was like, you don't need to be cursing on TV.
10:42
SPEAKER_04: But anyway.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Just between us.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: I know.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Off camera.
10:44
SPEAKER_04: I know that you know.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: BS.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: He said it is BS.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the fact is, I think it's BS to say that a governor can't do something about affordability.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: What's BS is that he vetoed that bill I just told you about, which could have limited how the number of homes he could have uh people can, companies can buy up.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: What's BS is that he vetoed a bill that could have addressed your prescription drug costs?
11:04
SPEAKER_00: What's BS is that he actually vetoed a bill that could have guaranteed school meals.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: We go back to the scorebar.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was a hungry kid in that class with a stomach growling, having had a score bar for lunch, and I really couldn't concentrate.
11:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, one in four of our kids are are suffering that same circumstance where they don't know where the next meal's gonna come from.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Um and you know, I was a teacher teaching those kids whose stomachs are growling.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: And and our governor could have done something about that.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: He could have signed a bill that would have guaranteed school meals for our children.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: But you know what he did?
11:34
SPEAKER_00: He vetoed that bill.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: He vetoed it, saying it was too expensive and a waste of money.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't have been a waste on a kid like me, as I've said, who was whose stomach was growling and couldn't concentrate, right?
11:44
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't too expensive because he went out and spent$25 million on office furniture.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Right.
11:49
SPEAKER_00: Um if I I don't know about y'all, but I would sit on the floor if it meant my kids could actually eat.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: So um speaking to your question in particular, uh, I'm gonna sign that bill, and that puts a thousand dollars per student per year back in your pocket so that you can pay for this expensive a I won't say that.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: That expensive gas, right?
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, that that's that's one thing we can do is we can free up money so that you can use it on other necessities, right?
12:15
SPEAKER_00: What you can also do is be a true leader for the state and and and let um the person that Joe Lombardo calls his uh commanding officer, uh Donald Trump, let him know that um that war in Iran is not a good idea, right?
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's an unit's an illegal war, um, subjecting our military families, uh, and and thank you to your husband for um his military service.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh putting them in harm's way, right?
12:38
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time jacking up these oil prices.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Everyone knew that the Trader Fo moves would close down um uh under these circumstances, and now we have diesel that's um over six dollars a gallon, right?
12:48
SPEAKER_00: And and um I was talking to one of my co-workers, uh he has a truck and he uses diesel.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: It took him$235 to fill up his truck.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: This was last week he told me,$235, right?
13:01
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sorry, these are stories, but they they speak to um what the real circumstances are on the ground, and what I could do in that regard is to um take this affordability crisis seriously, not abdicate responsibility, not claim there's nothing I can do about it, uh, and instead sign bills that would bring immediate relief, freeing up money in your pockets that you can spend elsewhere.
13:21
SPEAKER_04: Well said.
13:22
SPEAKER_04: You are even before we get ahead of ourselves, obviously, you know, what we're hoping to happen next month, uh, but you're the state's attorney general.
13:30
SPEAKER_04: What is one of your proudest accomplishments as the state's agent?
13:34
SPEAKER_00: Oh, listen, there are so many um accomplishments I'm proud of.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: Um the one that makes me smile the most, though, is uh two recent developments or settlements that we've had in the social media space.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Uh when I was um in the last legislative session, I ran a bill to try to um you know reel in some of the social media addictive qualities and to protect the mental health of our children.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh I had a young lady, uh Bethany, who sat next to me as I testified on this bill, and she sat next to us a picture, a bigger portrait of her daughter, who was a teenager, um, who unfortunately used TikTok to commit suicide.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: Um to teach her how to hang herself, how to tie a knot to hang herself.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: And when they found the young lady hanging, TikTok was still rolling scrolling um examples of how to tie knots.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh so she and I worked together to try to get a bill passed that was going to limit um, you know, uh the the that was going to address mental the mental health issues that um we see happening with um with our youth.
14:34
SPEAKER_00: And so we didn't get the bill passed, unfortunately, it didn't make it out of the last um the house.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I was able to get the first of a kind settlement with a company called Roblox.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: If you have young children, you know about that, and that's a you know, that's a very um um attractive game to children, but you know, it also attracts predators, child predators.
14:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, and uh because of meetings that I had with other attorneys general uh and leaders in the social media space, uh I was able to convene a discussion in my own office with Roblox to get the first of its kind in the nation settlement to require them to change their processes to protect our children from predators.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm proud of that.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: Um subsequently we ended up I sued, I I had sued Meta, um Instagram, Messenger, and um and and Facebook.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: Facebook maybe two, three years ago.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Um and about a month ago, maybe two months ago, we settled that case.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: $255 million or so coming to the state to help with our children's mental health.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Money is cool, but what's most important to me is that we have changed their behaviors of those platforms.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: They're not our kids aren't going to be able to be on the platform between 12 and 6, right?
15:39
SPEAKER_00: They're not getting notifications during school hours.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: They're getting rid of those um um those those masks or whatever they're called that that that the kids Like the filters.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the filter.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they're getting rid of those filters that are calling causing so much body dysmorphia and things of that sort.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: So proud of that, right?
15:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, that that makes me smile.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: So uh that's one thing I'm proud of.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh also proud of the fact that, you know, the opioid epidemic that exists in our state, I've been able to um um address.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: We have brought in$1.2 billion uh to uh we'll be bringing it in to help address the opioid crisis because I have sued these opioid companies that lied about the addictive nature uh of their product, uh, and um that's helping us right now.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: So these are a couple of uh things that I'm very proud of, but there's so much more as well.
16:23
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
16:24
SPEAKER_04: Data centers are a hot topic these days.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: Always.
16:28
SPEAKER_04: Always.
16:29
SPEAKER_04: And but just to clarify, data centers have been around for a long time.
16:32
SPEAKER_04: This is not nothing new, it's just the the scalability and the power that they use are becoming more of a talking point now.
16:40
SPEAKER_04: Is is is is that fair to say?
16:41
SPEAKER_04: I think it's very fair to say.
16:43
SPEAKER_04: So uh Susie Lee came on and kind of shared a little bit about Switch, which is you know one of our obviously the largest data center here.
16:49
SPEAKER_04: If you live in Vegas, you've seen the buildings.
16:51
SPEAKER_04: You've put a lot of conditions on data centers, like they must operate in in a way that protects our fresh water, avoid you know, raising utility rates.
16:59
SPEAKER_04: Can you talk a little bit more about what your what your mission is with working with these data centers and how it affects civilians, I guess?
17:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: Look, I think it's it's incumbent upon elected officials to be responsible in the way that they address issues and responsive to the public when they bring up concerns about these issues.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And so I have undertaken both of those seriously.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: I've had two statewide tours.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: The first time I heard data centers mentioned in this context was my first statewide tour.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Probably I think it was in Minden, actually.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Um at the same meeting where the young lady was trying to brought groceries, and they mentioned to me that they had concerns about this data center that was being developed in Yarrington, another rural area.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: And and I hadn't heard this, and so I listened and I said, So what's the issue?
17:44
SPEAKER_00: And they says, Well, we're worried about the water, we're worried about the electricity.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: And I says, Well, I need to delve into this a little bit more because listen, data centers of today are not the data centers of the past.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Right.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
17:54
SPEAKER_00: And so being responsible is listening, and being responsive is putting out plans that address these concerns.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And so what I have done over the course of the last you know year, 11 months or so is developed a plan that addresses the new concerns that people have raised.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: And so, under my plan, um, first off, there is no data center that I will allow to raise um c energy costs for a consumer by even one red cent, right?
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's because um, you know, that's a concern that people have raised.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: It was a headline.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: I know that the utility disputes the headline, but um on the California side of Lake Tahoe, there was an article said that that said that the utility um told them that they wouldn't be able to deliver energy to them anymore because they owed so much to a data center, right?
18:37
SPEAKER_00: And we want to avoid that.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: And so I've already introduced legislation that's going to require data centers to pay their own utility bills and have no way to transfer over the costs to the community or to subject them to the likelihood of not being able to receive energy.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have to use the they're gonna have to build out the grid in order to accommodate their own needs.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have to use clean and green energy in order to fuel or to power their facilities.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they're going to have to enter into community benefits agreements with uh local communities to ensure that communities get benefits from these data centers that are operating there.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: We're going to stop the tax breaks that these data centers have received up to this point until we can audit to be certain that the data centers that have received these tax breaks have indeed lived up to their end of the bargain.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Our current governor has failed in that regard.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, he has given out$240 million of tax breaks uh in his three years and nine months in office.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: He's also received two million dollars from data center interests, right?
19:35
SPEAKER_00: And so that shows you where he's aligned when he says that he's wholeheartedly in support of data centers.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: Right.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: That this is, you know, I'll leave it to your you know discernment as to why that you know that may be.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you know, um we're we are going to limit those tax, we're gonna stop those tax breaks.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Um but most importantly, though the local uh input is gonna it's going to be a paramount import.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: I was in Boulder City two days ago, I think it was Sunday night, talking to them at a data center town hall.
20:00
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Um and I explained to them that they didn't want data centers, and I'm gonna ensure that they it's not forced down their throats.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, especially when they try to uh do an in-run around our state laws and move over to federal lands um and try to do that.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: So uh we're gonna push back against those types of things uh to ensure that public input uh is a paramount import and that it gets the um um appreciation that it deserves.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: In terms of community, we also have to talk about um like jobs and what we're used to here is a lot of tourism and hospitality.
20:30
SPEAKER_01: But I believe that you said that you hope that I don't know if it was Nevada or Las Vegas specifically, but you said that you hope that we can grow more of a financial services hub.
20:39
SPEAKER_01: But upon my research, I also saw on your website that you said you want to crack down on Wall Street firms coming to Nevada.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: So maybe it was my misunderstanding, but I'd love if you could explain a little bit more.
20:49
SPEAKER_01: Um are you saying that you want the financial services here to grow, just not like Wall Street companies buying up property?
20:57
SPEAKER_01: Or what do you what do you mean with those two statements?
20:59
SPEAKER_00: Look, that's that's that's a great question.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: And what I what I want to be clear of is that I'm not trying to replicate Wall Street here.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: Right.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Right.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh but I am in conversations already with members of the chamber who want to help to bring a financial industries uh uh district here, for example, to help with um you know banking and it helps with uh financial planning and things of that sort.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: There are efforts underway, um, conversations that I've already had that that we want to try to expand upon.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: But that's not the only form of diversifying our economy that's important.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: We do rely heavily on tourism um and on construction uh and on mining up north, and those are our three predominant industries.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: And uh when the country gets a cold, we get the flu.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: And so what we need are new industries, and uh our clean energy industry is one that I want to continue to expand upon.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Um we live in the desert, we got a lot of sun, and so uh investing in in solar energy and opportunities there, bringing good union jobs, good you know, good paying jobs are important as well.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Um opening up opportunities for advanced manufacturing.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh, these are the types of ways that I think we can continue to diversify our economy.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh so that when bad decisions like taxes and tariffs that our president has introduced and our our governor has uh aligned himself with by saying we should feel pain from, uh when those happen, we have other jurisdictions uh other uh industries that we can rely upon to help us uh through those tough times.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
22:18
SPEAKER_04: In the past, politicians, some of the greatest politicians aren't afraid to occasionally cross party lines, especially with some ideas that you know the other party presents.
22:28
SPEAKER_04: If you do become governor, what generally republic idea republican idea would you like to bring to your administration?
22:36
SPEAKER_00: Well, look, I firmly believe that no one has a monopoly on good ideas.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Nor does one have a monopoly on bad ideas.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, both parties have good ideas and some have bad ideas.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, one of the things that I have said is that my focus on the scorebar, my memory of of what it is to struggle, um, um, and recognizing um um what this job is about frees me up to do some things that others are unwilling to do.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna get to your your your answer, but you need some background about me so that you can understand exactly how I feel about these things.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Um I've seen it, that a lot of people who are in positions like mine, elected officials, they get in these positions and it becomes our identity.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's where they get their prestige, where they get their their honor, their their their capacity to convene, their respect.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, and and when you ultimately attack their ability to be elected or re-elected, they view it as a personal attack on them.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: Because it's their identity.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: I've never had that problem.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I don't view this as who I am, it's what I do.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: You don't take it personal.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: I I I don't take it personal because at the end of the day, I mean, let me be clear, some things can hurt, sure, right?
23:42
SPEAKER_00: But at the end of the day, um, because this is what I do and not who I am, um, I'm able to focus on other things because because who I am, look at my Twitter feed and I describe myself on purpose as a husband first.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
23:54
SPEAKER_00: Make no mistake about it.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: That's my first priority, is a husband to my wife.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm a father to my children.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh and then I'm attorney general, right?
24:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh and that frees me up to take on uh my own party um when it comes to um you know education, for example.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, uh I'm an advocate of charter schools, some are not, but that does not stop me from getting the endorsement of um the Nevada State Education Association or the Wasser Education Association.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: They appreciate the fact that I can have them at the table with me and we can work through issues and try to move the ball forward.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: Um I also take on my own party.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: I I sued uh Joe Biden, you know, when it came to reproductive rights and mid for pristone, right?
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe that we have to stand up for bodily autonomy for um for women.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Um and so if there's a good idea Republicans put out there, um, you know, I will work with them on that.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, I won't purport to outline what those ideas may be, uh, but um I've my my my work product speaks for itself.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: I work with anybody who is interested in improving lives for Nevadaans, and I've demonstrated that through my work product.
24:51
SPEAKER_01: Back to who you are a little bit.
24:54
SPEAKER_01: You must be coming off a high from this weekend, and I am a little bit too because I'm from DFW at the end of the day, but the Cowboys beat the Texans.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: We them boys.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
25:07
SPEAKER_01: But with that being said, even though I am from the Dallas area, why are you a Cowboys fan?
25:14
SPEAKER_01: Why do you do that to yourself?
25:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, look, uh, I am not a fair weather friend.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: There are some who are fickle, right?
25:20
SPEAKER_00: They jump on bandwagons.
25:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I like loyalty, right?
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm loyal to this state.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: Of course, right?
25:27
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna do all that we can, even through tough times.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, and it's good practice with the cowboys.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: Right.
25:33
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Now you say you're from the Dallas area.
25:35
SPEAKER_00: Where are you from in Dallas?
25:36
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm from uh Flower Mount, the suburb.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know exactly where that is.
25:39
SPEAKER_01: That's where I'm from.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm from O'Cliff.
25:40
SPEAKER_00: That's my hood.
25:41
SPEAKER_01: Okay, well, we had property in O'Cliff.
25:44
unknown: Okay, okay, okay, okay.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, my most recent place when I moved back here in 07, we were in Capel.
25:48
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty close to Flower Mount.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: It is.
25:50
SPEAKER_01: I was born in Plano.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: So I mean, the whole DFW area.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you don't claim Dallas, though.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: My wife's from Tarrill, Texas, and I won't let her say she's from Dallas.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: You're from Terrell.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: You're from Flower Mountain, you're not from Dallas.
26:00
SPEAKER_01: But I say DFW.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
26:02
unknown: Perfect.
26:02
SPEAKER_04: I mean, Julie.
26:03
SPEAKER_04: She'd be a good politician.
26:04
SPEAKER_04: Well, Julie, good.
26:05
SPEAKER_04: She said the right things at the right time.
26:07
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
26:08
SPEAKER_04: Um, but uh staying on the sports side of things, when you do look at you know, the Raiders being here and the Golden Knights and the Aces and soon to be the women's hockey uh team as well.
26:18
SPEAKER_04: What do you think the state should be doing to make sure that the growth of sports here actually creates opportunities for uh people that live here?
26:26
SPEAKER_00: Well, I can show you better than I can tell you.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: When I was in the state senate, I was the minority leader at the time when we were trying to negotiate with the um, I think the the then Oakland Raiders to relocate here.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: Um and I took it upon myself to ensure um exactly what you've just said that people have that people had opportunities um with the re with the relocation.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh employment opportunities.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: And that companies have the ability to eat to to get contracting opportunities with the Raiders uh and the stadium, not just in the operation stage, uh as in, you know, vendors in the stadium, but also at the design phase.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: So architects were able to engage and and and try to get work from uh the design phase and um from the construction phase to ensure that um people from every background, every race, you know, women had opportunities, veterans had opportunities.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: It was a community benefits plan that I uh led uh and that ultimately um you know uh led to opportunities for people in that particular arena.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh and and it wasn't just that.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, when we were trying to get jobs through a company called Faraday in north in in North Las Vegas, I made them say, um, I made them uh talk about community benefits plans, right?
27:34
SPEAKER_00: So um I firmly believe that anybody from any background should be able to, again, I go back to something I said a minute ago, not just survive here, but to thrive.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Uh this the and our state will be open for business for everybody when I'm the governor.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: Yep, so uh you just passed a court order blocking the new USPS rule about mail-in voting, correct?
27:56
SPEAKER_00: I won that case, absolutely.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, you won that case.
28:00
SPEAKER_01: Why did you believe that that rule was a threat to Nevada's election system?
28:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: Um because it was.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Our constitution says that states run elections, not the president, right?
28:14
SPEAKER_00: States in Congress are the ones that have the authority to oversee elections, and Congress has not stepped in to stop states from operating in the mail-in ballot arena, right?
28:23
SPEAKER_00: And we decided that we wanted to have mail-in but uh ballots because he wanted more people to participate in the voting process.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: But the president uh and our governor um have been attacking mail-in ballots, even though they both have voted by mail, right?
28:36
SPEAKER_00: I think our governor's voted by mail the last four out of the five times that we've had elections, right?
28:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but but he's uh you know following his commanding officer and attacking the interrogator by elections.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: And um, as an individual who has been a uh staunch advocate for voting rights, I'm from Texas, right?
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Right.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: My my grandparents, my my wife's parents, they underwent disenfranchisement.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: They had water hoses, you know, as as threats and dogs as threats, right?
29:00
SPEAKER_00: And and poll tests, uh, uh poll taxes and things of that sort.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: As a black man, I take that seriously.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: So I stand up and I speak up every time, and when I see an attack on our elections, I want to lead in those fights.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: And so I have led the lawsuits uh both against both of the executive orders that our president uh tried to sign to usurp our authority as a state sovereign.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: Um and the Supreme Court a couple weeks back agreed with us that what he was trying to do with the post office, what he was trying to do is make uh make the post office even dictate what the envelope looks like, right?
29:30
SPEAKER_00: And then to come up with our own list of who's eligible to vote.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: Um utter nonsense um and an infringement on our rights.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Um I worked with our Secretary of State, I sued, and we won.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: Um and our elections will remain free, fair, and safe.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Um and from any objective perspective, MIT, a very uh respected educational institution, did a study and has us, I think, ranked number two in terms of election security, right?
29:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so that's why I sued, because again, I I don't care who you are, if you are harming Nevadans, especially when it comes to constitutional rights like the right to vote, I'm gonna stand up, I'm gonna meet them in court, and I'm gonna beat them in court.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: Well said.
30:05
SPEAKER_04: I want to get you out of here.
30:06
SPEAKER_04: One last question, and I want to ask this not to the politician Aaron Ford, I want to ask this to the husband, the father, the probably homeowner, Aaron Ford.
30:16
SPEAKER_04: I you don't need stats to know that a lot of families are having a hard time these days with pain bills, you know, gas, uh, you know, living situations.
30:26
SPEAKER_04: For someone in in my experience, in my 41 years on this world, it's it seems to be one of the hardest times that I've I and my friends have have have gone through.
30:37
SPEAKER_04: What advice or I guess words of wisdom can you impart on people who are listening to the show and are you know really trying to hard ha have a hard time making ends meet um and and need just somebody who can give some words of wisdom with that?
30:54
SPEAKER_00: Listen, um I have a testimony.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: My testimony is that I went from eating stale candy bars to being a single parent in college.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: I almost dropped out of college, uh, my junior year.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: Um two reasons that I didn't.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Number one was because my mama helped out until number two came through.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: My welfare.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: I got on Section 8 housing, I got on food stamps to feed my son and me, and I got on Medicaid to keep us healthy.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: When I tell you I almost dropped out of college, I reflect back on why.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: Look, college was an important thing to me.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: I was the first in my family to go to college.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna be the first to graduate.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: So it was important to me.
31:34
SPEAKER_00: It was a personal um ambition that I had, but it was one that I couldn't focus on.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Because I was more focused on something more important at the time feeding my son.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Having a house for him to live in, uh, and having health care.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: Now, once I was able to focus on that and get those accomplished through welfare, I suddenly was able to refocus on education.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Right?
31:56
SPEAKER_00: And I ultimately graduated from uh Texas ANM.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: I went on to get five degrees in total, including two master's degrees, my law degree, and my PhD.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: Um and the son I had in college, we share a hashtag.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: It is from Medicaid to Medical Doctor.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: You see, my 33-year-old son is a medical doctor.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: Now he went to Georgetown, three-time president of his class.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: He's in his residency now.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: The emergency medicine is about to graduate, about to finish that up in May.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: And I share that as a testimony of what happens when, pardon me, when those in whom we've invested our vote reinvest in us.
32:30
unknown: Right?
32:30
SPEAKER_00: If it weren't for a government, frankly, willing to help me in one of my toughest times, and that was a scary time in my life.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was in a fog, couldn't see a foot ahead of me, right?
32:40
SPEAKER_00: Didn't know how I was gonna get through.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: But that investment in me enabled me not just in my own generation, as Aaron Forward, to be able to be accomplished, but ultimately my my son I had in college.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: And now I have a my middle son's a third-year law student, right?
32:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh my youngest son's a senior in college, medical biomedical, um, biochemistry major.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: So my advice to those out there is that um your current circumstance doesn't have to dictate where you end up.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it is incumbent upon you to not just sit back and take it.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: Um you have an opportunity now to choose between a folder and Joel Lombardo, who has cowed, capitulated, and kissed up to Donald Trump at every turn, uh, and a fighter and Aaron Ford, who will fight for not just a billionaires that Joe Lombardo said that he and Trump have to take care of, uh, but for every person in this state.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: I've demonstrated my willingness and my ability to do that as your state senator.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've done it as your attorney general, and I will do it as your governor, and I hope I can earn your support.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: He's good.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: I got fucked up, baby.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: All right, man, let's go vote right now.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: You can vote right now in the mail ballot when I know that.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
33:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm the first forward on the on the ballot, Aaron Ford.
33:55
SPEAKER_04: Be sure y'all vote for Aaron.
33:56
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
33:56
SPEAKER_04: That's right.
33:57
SPEAKER_04: I used to work for the Yellow Pages, and all the businesses used to have their names like Triple A, can Triple A plumbing, and that's because they would show up first on the ballot.
34:04
SPEAKER_04: So that's that's good.
34:04
SPEAKER_04: It works out for it.
34:05
SPEAKER_04: I'm the one.
34:06
SPEAKER_04: But I want to thank you for coming on, Aaron.
34:07
SPEAKER_04: Uh I want to thank your team also for helping set this up.
34:10
SPEAKER_04: Your your team is phenomenal.
34:11
SPEAKER_04: Um, and I'm I'm so excited for you know the the future of the state, and I'm just so thankful to have you on here, man.
34:16
SPEAKER_04: Happy to be here.
34:17
SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
34:17
SPEAKER_04: We'll see.
34:18
SPEAKER_04: Big head.
34:18
SPEAKER_04: Big head.
34:19
SPEAKER_04: Hold on.
34:19
SPEAKER_04: This big head's gonna take a bite of the scoreboard real quick.
34:21
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna have I'm gonna have a bite in front of you.
34:23
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
34:23
SPEAKER_04: This is my first first.
34:25
SPEAKER_01: What if he hates it?
34:26
SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be then that's his bad judgment.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: You gotta just crack my tooth.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm back up.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: I know.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: You gotta, you know, let it marinate a little bit.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm saying.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Oh damn.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, enjoy it.
34:38
SPEAKER_04: I'm hungry.
34:38
SPEAKER_04: I'm hungry.
34:39
SPEAKER_04: Uh let's see a quick breaker, we'll be right back.
34:41
SPEAKER_03: Go vote.
34:42
SPEAKER_03: Go vote.
34:43
SPEAKER_04: Go vote.
34:44
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35:20
SPEAKER_04: Alright, Julie.
35:21
SPEAKER_04: We're back.
35:23
SPEAKER_04: And now you saw me take my first bite of my scorebar.
35:26
SPEAKER_04: Now you can take your bite of your scorebar.
35:28
SPEAKER_04: Go ahead.
35:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
35:30
SPEAKER_04: Everybody.
35:33
SPEAKER_02: No ASMR.
35:36
SPEAKER_01: It is good.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: I like this.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: Did you ever have like um, you know, like McFlurries with the Heath on top of it?
35:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
35:43
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it does taste pretty much just like a Heath bar.
35:45
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
35:45
SPEAKER_04: It's good.
35:46
SPEAKER_04: It's a good little sweet treat.
35:47
SPEAKER_04: I like it.
35:47
SPEAKER_04: That was great.
35:48
SPEAKER_04: I had a lot of fun with him.
35:49
SPEAKER_04: I uh I'm obviously you know thankful that we got time with him.
35:53
SPEAKER_04: I wish we had a little bit more, but we got a lot out of the 30 minutes.
35:57
SPEAKER_04: And uh um I think it was a fantastic episode.
36:00
SPEAKER_04: And he's he's so eloquent on the mic, as to be expected, and he touched on a lot of the topics that we wanted to touch on.
36:09
SPEAKER_04: He touched on all the topics that we wanted to touch on.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, maybe we can get him back on after the election.
36:13
SPEAKER_04: That would be that would be something.
36:15
SPEAKER_04: Listen, does the road to the White House run through Big Head?
36:19
SPEAKER_01: Not currently.
36:20
SPEAKER_04: Well, it might be in the future.
36:22
SPEAKER_04: You don't know that.
36:23
SPEAKER_04: Don't bring down my vibes.
36:24
SPEAKER_04: Uh, but no, I thought it was great.
36:26
SPEAKER_04: I I I love the fact that he is aware of the current economic situation with a a lot of families these days.
36:33
SPEAKER_04: I also like the fact that he didn't hold back on, you know, throwing shade at Lombardo, which I thought was was a breath of fresh air in a respectful way, not in a trashy way.
36:44
SPEAKER_04: But I I thought it was a really, really good way to kind of show off what's going on now and how we can change it.
36:50
SPEAKER_04: And uh I'm excited to see, you know, hopefully it works out next month in November and see where it goes from there.
36:57
SPEAKER_04: What was that?
36:57
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: Our neighbors or something are banging on the walls.
37:01
SPEAKER_04: There you go.
37:01
SPEAKER_04: Uh but Brandon, what did you think?
37:03
SPEAKER_02: You were behind the board.
37:04
SPEAKER_02: What did you think of uh uh Aaron Ford?
37:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, like you said, I mean he hit a lot of topics in 30 minutes.
37:09
SPEAKER_02: He talked about affordability, education, and AI data centers as well, and he proved a lot of good points.
37:15
SPEAKER_02: I mean, like you said, he is willing to go at Joe Lombardo, but he also is respectful.
37:21
SPEAKER_02: I'm sure his PR team is very happy with that.
37:23
SPEAKER_04: Uh that is very true.
37:24
SPEAKER_04: He went, like it said, we we watched his episode on uh The Breakfast Club, and he didn't curse like horribly, but he said, you know, ass and uh I think he said bullshit once or twice.
37:36
SPEAKER_04: And uh I'm sure PR team lit him up on that.
37:38
SPEAKER_04: And he even said, even he said his wife didn't.
37:40
SPEAKER_01: I think he's probably more concerned about his wife than his PR team.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: He's like, she's gonna eat all my score bars if I keep cursing.
37:47
SPEAKER_02: Husband first, he said.
37:48
SPEAKER_04: So that's right, husband first.
37:50
SPEAKER_04: Uh, but no, I thought that's spot on.
37:51
SPEAKER_04: Julie, what about you?
37:52
SPEAKER_04: What'd you think?
37:54
SPEAKER_01: I I really enjoy Aaron Ford.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: I've enjoyed listening to him speak before he even came on Big Head.
37:59
SPEAKER_01: So um, I mean, I think it was fun.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: I think we did a decent job on our end, not as well as Aaron did.
38:05
SPEAKER_01: We're not as well spoken as he is.
38:08
SPEAKER_04: No, no, no.
38:09
SPEAKER_01: But no, I think it was it was really fun, it was really great, and I hope everyone who has already watched the episode, if they've gotten to this point in it, enjoyed listening to him speak.
38:19
SPEAKER_04: Well said.
38:20
SPEAKER_04: Well said.
38:21
SPEAKER_04: Yeah, he was uh he was a lot taller than I thought.
38:24
SPEAKER_04: Huge.
38:25
SPEAKER_04: I'm a little above.
38:26
SPEAKER_01: He's like eight feet tall.
38:27
SPEAKER_04: He is I don't know if I'm gonna go that far, but he's probably like six, I'd probably say six five, six four, six five.
38:35
SPEAKER_01: He had like a good foot on you.
38:37
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
38:38
SPEAKER_04: Pull up the picture right now.
38:39
SPEAKER_04: Pull up the photo.
38:41
SPEAKER_04: My hair's a little fluffier and that gave me an inch or two.
38:44
SPEAKER_01: But uh you're wearing inserts and you have hair.
38:47
SPEAKER_01: He does not have hair and he was barefoot.
38:50
SPEAKER_04: He was slouching down to get in the flame.
38:53
SPEAKER_04: He was bringing himself down here.
38:54
SPEAKER_04: He loved the fact that you snorted too.
38:56
SPEAKER_01: I know, I snorted off camera.
38:58
SPEAKER_04: I know you didn't snort on camera.
38:59
SPEAKER_04: This wasn't a laughing episode.
39:00
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't a laughing episode.
39:02
SPEAKER_04: That's it's rare for us.
39:03
SPEAKER_04: Usually we have a lot of jokes, but I mean he said some funny stuff.
39:06
SPEAKER_04: He did say some funny things, but snorting.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: But I think I had, I think because at one point, like I had goosebumps from him telling the stories about the social media stuff.
39:16
SPEAKER_01: So I think from like feeling that goosebump and like kind of stomach turning feeling, even when there's comedy following that, yeah, the snort doesn't happen.
39:27
SPEAKER_04: The more the more we the more we recorded Julie, the more I'm learning about your snort and when it does and doesn't show up.
39:33
SPEAKER_01: It's nuanced.
39:34
SPEAKER_04: But that that social media addiction thing, that's that's so real.
39:37
SPEAKER_04: I've ever since we've been a lot more social media heavily with the show in Vegas Local, I'm on social media a lot more.
39:45
SPEAKER_04: And I'm as a 41-year-old man am realizing how addictive it is.
39:49
SPEAKER_04: I'll find myself doom scrolling, and I realize it's been 30 minutes or so, and then I get mad at myself.
39:56
SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I can't believe that I just spent wasted 30 minutes just doom scrolling on junk.
40:02
SPEAKER_04: But so, and I can I couldn't imagine what if it what it would be like if I was a teen.
40:06
SPEAKER_01: Right.
40:06
SPEAKER_04: And you know, how I was addicted to video games when I was a teen.
40:10
SPEAKER_04: I would absolutely be heavily addicted to social media.
40:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, even when I was a teen, like we had Instagram and and all of that, but it wasn't the doom scrolling version.
40:20
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't think reels were a thing yet, TikTok wasn't a thing.
40:23
SPEAKER_01: It was just people posting their pictures or whatever.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: But even then, I feel like my whole life I have realized that I'm always in a way worse mood after I've spent time on social media.
40:32
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
40:33
SPEAKER_04: I know because sometimes you'd be like, I'll call you and be like, what do you want?
40:36
SPEAKER_04: And like, I'm sorry, geez.
40:38
SPEAKER_04: And you're like, I'm sorry, I was just doom scrolling.
40:40
SPEAKER_01: I literally never say that because you only call me during the workday, and I'm not doom scrolling during the workday.
40:46
SPEAKER_04: That was a test and you passed.
40:47
SPEAKER_04: Well done.
40:48
SPEAKER_04: I had in my day, I had AOL Instant Messenger, which uh was before either of your times.
40:55
SPEAKER_01: I've used it.
40:56
SPEAKER_02: Have you?
40:56
SPEAKER_02: Sounds like an ancient language.
40:58
SPEAKER_04: It is, and you'd be so concerned about the crush that you have seeing her online or something like that, or I'd update my profile, my info.
41:06
SPEAKER_04: Uh, you'd click on a username and you can see like their bio, and it wouldn't necessarily always be a bio, it'd be like a quote from a song.
41:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, your crush wouldn't respond to you, and you'd type, I guess nobody cares about me as your bio.
41:18
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I was never that would you type on an Instagram snapshot so everyone knows like a quote of the day or something from the answer.
41:25
SPEAKER_04: That's the that's the the the equivalent of that, yes, or your away message.
41:29
SPEAKER_04: If I was away, you'd have to have something clever there.
41:31
SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, that was my social media, and I was addicted to AOL insta message.
41:35
SPEAKER_01: Slightly getting off topic, but just because I have a question that I think you are the only person in the room that would know the answer to it.
41:40
SPEAKER_04: Why would I this is because I'm so smart and so handsome and just such a genius all around?
41:45
SPEAKER_01: No, because you're the only one that would remember it.
41:48
unknown: Jesus Christ.
41:49
SPEAKER_01: Wasn't AOL where you could message with the bots?
41:53
SPEAKER_01: Like they had like three different fake bots that you could talk to.
41:57
SPEAKER_04: There was their bots were coming out around that time, and I remember tricking friends of mine that it was a real person because it would take like a couple seconds for it to respond, and they'd be so quick with the responses that a few non-tech savvy friends of mine would I would trick and say, Oh, this is actually my friend.
42:14
SPEAKER_04: He's in the public school over there or something like that.
42:17
SPEAKER_01: But it was AOL, right?
42:18
SPEAKER_01: Like the uh it was one of the instant messengers, yeah, whatever.
42:22
SPEAKER_04: One of those things, but yeah, you would you would trick people into knowing it, and now uh nobody would fall for it.
42:27
SPEAKER_01: That's the start of AI.
42:28
SPEAKER_04: That's that's the start of it.
42:29
SPEAKER_04: We started it.
42:30
SPEAKER_04: Who would have thought?
42:31
SPEAKER_04: Us millennial.
42:32
SPEAKER_04: Am I a millennial?
42:32
SPEAKER_04: What am I?
42:33
SPEAKER_01: You are a millennial.
42:34
SPEAKER_04: Us millennials started AI.
42:35
SPEAKER_04: How about that?
42:36
SPEAKER_04: Uh, but that was great.
42:37
SPEAKER_04: I'm so thankful for Aaron Ford.
42:39
SPEAKER_04: Did I say his name properly each time?
42:41
SPEAKER_01: No, most of the time.
42:43
SPEAKER_01: What do you mean no?
42:43
SPEAKER_01: When did I say his name?
42:44
SPEAKER_01: I think at the end you did call him Aaron Ford.
42:46
SPEAKER_04: I think he called himself Aaron Ford.
42:48
SPEAKER_01: Right.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: Let's tell him that.
42:50
SPEAKER_01: Get him on the line.
42:52
SPEAKER_04: Uh, but it was great.
42:53
SPEAKER_04: I'm so thankful for his team reaching out and having him come on our show.
42:57
SPEAKER_04: And who knows, maybe this could be an ongoing thing, a common thing.
43:01
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully.
43:01
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:02
SPEAKER_01: Shout out Aaron.
43:03
SPEAKER_04: Shout out Aaron.
43:04
SPEAKER_04: We'll catch new episodes each week on heybighead.com.
43:08
SPEAKER_04: Julie, any last words before we head out?
43:10
SPEAKER_01: Go vote.
43:10
SPEAKER_04: Go vote.
43:12
SPEAKER_02: Well said.