And, This is Escape From Alcatraz

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Speaker 8 This is Gavin Newsom.

Speaker 8 And this is Escape from Alcatraz.

Speaker 8 Well, I want to thank everybody for leaving voice messages calling into the show. And one of the things that lit up the voicemail line this week was Alcatraz.
Yes, The Rock, Escape from Alcatraz.

Speaker 8 Here we are. I can't even make, you cannot make this up.

Speaker 8 Here we are at the moment, this critical moment in American history, and here we are with a brand new distraction, Distraction Day in the United States of America.

Speaker 8 And so as a former mayor, it's not surprising. And yes, governor of the state of California, that those calls made their way to the inbox.

Speaker 9 Hi, my name is Sarah Turbani. I am a

Speaker 9 resident of San Luis Obispo, California, London, California my whole life. I wanted to find out if our governor was going to react to Trump's claims to wanting to reopen Alcatraz.

Speaker 9 I'm like, at this point, you know, I mean, a lot of stuff that he says were just like, what? But I don't know, he's had a rough field with so much crap. It's ridiculous.
Okay.

Speaker 9 So, yeah, response, please, that would be amazing. Thank you so much.

Speaker 8 First of all, I love the question. I love the way you phrased the question.
I love the way you laughed when

Speaker 8 you left that voicemail because I think that's how all of us, I mean, the overwhelming majority of us responded to this.

Speaker 8 I responded quite formally, by the way, with a tweet that said this was just simply distraction day in Washington, D.C.

Speaker 8 It wasn't just reopening Alcatraz as a federal prison, but he also asked and called for, asked the Commerce Department and called for new tariffs on foreign-made films.

Speaker 8 So this is what Donald Trump does. He doesn't care if he's the heel or the hero, as long as he's the star and we're talking about him.

Speaker 8 And this is why it's so important that we sort of distill the essence of what Trump is actually communicating and what he's actually doing that has a real impact in our lives.

Speaker 8 So everybody's chasing this. It's totally understandable.
I totally appreciate the question. And here I am responding to it because, heck, you know, I'm a fifth generation San Franciscan.

Speaker 8 I'm a former mayor of San Francisco. So what would you expect? How could I not respond to this?

Speaker 8 I think I, by the way, may have commented to one reporter that it the proposal has the form and substance of fog, meaning there is quite literally no there there.

Speaker 8 I'll remind you, speaking of no there, there, there's no water, there's no operating sewer system.

Speaker 8 What is there is a dilapidated old prison that was designed in the 1930s, 1933, that Bobby Kennedy, not Jr.,

Speaker 8 Bobby Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, the Attorney General of the United States, announced in 1962 that he was going to shut down and did eventually shut down in 1963.

Speaker 8 But I think Donald Trump's mindset is maybe 1983. I'm making that up, but when The Rock came out and when Escape from Alcatraz, sort of iconic movies,

Speaker 8 and there's sort of an indelible sense of place that is attached to Alcatraz. It's evocative.
Al Capone was there. Whitey Bolger was there.

Speaker 8 Machine Gun Kelly was there, but not many other people were there. I think it has a capacity of about 330, 336 cells.

Speaker 8 Anyone that's visited, and I've been there on multiple occasions, I imagine many people watching and listening have as well.

Speaker 8 It's corroded. You have all that saltwater intrusion.
You've got a place that would quite literally,

Speaker 8 Doge, are you listening? Quite literally cost hundreds and hundreds. and hundreds of millions of dollars would be the most expensive federal prison in the system.
It's completely unnecessary.

Speaker 8 And again, it's all intended to be a distraction.

Speaker 8 So we're focused on this and candidly, not focused on the real issue, which are these tariffs and the impact that's having in wrecking on our economy and how it's impacting small businesses and how it's impacting each and every one of you watching and listening in more ways on more days than anything else that Donald Trump is currently doing.

Speaker 8 And so that's why I think he did this. And I'll just close on this.

Speaker 8 Don't do this to San Francisco and California and don't do this to tourism. It's one of the drivers of tourism in the United States.

Speaker 8 A million plus people, I think it's 1.2 million last year came to Alcatraz and the island. I think the park service that runs it generates $60 million a year in revenue.

Speaker 8 Back to my doge point, this would cost. tens of millions of dollars.
You have to bring people onto the island, the workforce and everything else.

Speaker 8 He specifically directed his Department of Justice and he directed Secretary Bergham to start to put together a plan of action on this.

Speaker 8 I mean, I pray that they're focused on other things and not focused on the folly of this latest distraction. This is about zigging and zagging.

Speaker 8 In a couple of weeks, it will be a couple of days, maybe a couple of hours, maybe today. Maybe as I speak,

Speaker 8 there is something out there that I'm not looking at. That's the next day's distraction.
And this is what Donald Trump does better than anybody else, gets us all talking about something

Speaker 8 so that we're not talking about something else. And so the critical thing from my humble perspective is we've got to focus on what really matters, what's essential.

Speaker 8 And again, the issue right now for Donald Trump that is hurting him more than any other issue, and there's a lot. And I'm not trying to stack up

Speaker 8 any sort of, well, I'm not trying to diminish the other issues, but it's the tariffs, the economy, your 401ks, what's happening in the markets, what's not happening as it relates to imports, and what's not happening as it relates to the kind of certainty that people need and small businesses need in order to make decisions.

Speaker 8 What may happen to your school supplies because they're not coming into the ports of entry.

Speaker 8 What may happen, my gosh, if it's just a few more months of these tariffs, particularly to China, what may happen as it relates to your Christmas toys that may not be on the shelves later in the year.

Speaker 8 And Donald Trump is under deep pressure on that issue. So I would expect he'll continue to try to relieve some of that pressure and that

Speaker 8 focus by bringing more of this nonsense to bear and getting us all to chase these stories. And I'll just close.
Yeah, we had to chase it.

Speaker 8 I mean, my phone lit up with reporters, people calling me saying, is this real? Can this be true? What are your thoughts on it? Can you stop it?

Speaker 8 And the fact that there were real reporters and real concern, frankly, concerns me more than anything else. Form and substance of fog.
There's no there there. Focus on something else.

Speaker 8 By the way, the number of calls that I received, the number of voicemails and text messages from reputable reporters all across the country, from around the world, from other elected officials saying, help, what are we going to do?

Speaker 8 Can we stop this?

Speaker 8 And I told everybody, you got to, you cannot. I mean, you got to be kidding me.
This is going nowhere. This is distraction day in the United States of America.
Everybody, don't worry about it.

Speaker 8 Don't panic. You're going to be on that island as a tourist for decades and decades to come.

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Shop $10 beauty minis from brands like Mac and Too Faced.

Speaker 4 Take 30% off Lancome and Touchland fragrances and body mists. With new offers dropping every week, our associates can help you find the perfect gifts.

Speaker 4 Head into Ulta Beauty today to shop our early Black Friday event, Ulta Beauty. Gifting happens here.

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Speaker 7 Shop their early Black Friday deals and beat the rush. $99 is all you need to grab a select seven-foot pre-lit artificial Christmas tree for the holidays.

Speaker 3 And don't sweat what gifts to get, dad.

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Speaker 3 That's how Lowe's celebrates Black Friday early. Selection varies by location while supplies last.

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Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.