Are you ready to make a change at the top in California? Are you ready for this recall to happen in just a couple of weeks? Well I must be in the right place. So thank you so much for being here. I will tell you, senator, thank you for that very nice and warm introduction. Make sure everybody's in the shade here [so] they can see me or I can see you. But it is fantastic to be here, I will tell you.

Thanks for, thanks for caring about our state. Thanks for wanting to come out on a, on a Saturday evening, hear a little bit about this campaign and how we're going to change California, and how we're going to do it in a way that brings our great state together with somebody who has the passion, who has the tenacity, and who can get the results to get our state back on track.

That's what this campaign is all about and I can tell you guys, the fact that we've been on the road for about six days now, we've traveled all across this great state of ours, and I can tell you the enthusiasm is there, the passion is there. We've made stops all over. Folks who understand that they want leadership back in the governor's office, they want a candidate, they want a governor who's going to listen and fight for you on the things that matter.

And I can tell you, as we've gone around, and as we talk about the issues that are making a huge difference, it's folks from all over the state. And I'm really looking forward to bringing back, as I said, governors and leadership that has been absent in our state. One party rule has not been working for the last decade, ladies and gentlemen, am I right on that? It is time for a competition of ideas, and somebody who can, as I said, actually has a track record and can get the results we need.

And first and foremost to have a governor that understands what all you understand, is that our state's too expensive. People are voting with their feet, literally, and leaving California. Raise your hand if you know somebody who's looking to leave our state because it's too expensive. That's the unfortunate reality. And yet we have a governor that seems to think the solution to every problem is to have you send more tax dollars to Sacramento. I have put forward the largest middle class tax cut in the history of California, ladies and gentlemen, because you deserve to keep more of your hard work— hard earned money in your own pockets. And I can tell you what, as I go around and talk, everybody of all walks of life, all backgrounds, all political parties understand how important it is to make our state more affordable, and to make our state, more livable.

When I was mayor of San Diego, as I think many of you know, we were the only big city in California where we actually reduced homelessness, by double digits. I did not allow tent encampments on the sidewalk in San Diego while I was mayor. Why? Because we care about people; we care about people enough not to let them die on, on our tents on our sidewalks, and our freeway underpasses and overpasses.

So I just drove through Los Angeles this afternoon. Wow. That's not who we are. We care about people; we care about people enough to ensure that we're actually going to make a difference like we did in San Diego. Because folks, we want people to get help and the support, but it's not okay to live in a tent doing heroin and methamphetamine in front of somebody's house or from somebody's business. I'm going to take that exact same firm yet compassionate approach. I will lead by example as Governor just as we did in San Diego, and we're going to make a difference in the state once and for all. It cries out for leadership, because what we're seeing happening in our great cities all across the state is not leadership. Are you with me, can we reduce homeless, guys; can we actually with a governor that's going to make a difference?

I also tell you, besides being a candidate for governor, I'm a proud dad. Two kids, both went through public schools, and my daughter just graduated a couple months ago, Our kids should have been in the classroom this entire second semester, ladies and gentlemen. We had a governor that shut down our public schools. The last state in the nation, the last state in the nation to open our schools. Our kids should have been in the classroom learning this entire time. Private schools were open, right. Teachers were safely teaching, kids were safely learning, but yet our public schools were closed. Private schools of course report to parents; the public schools which ultimately report to Gavin Newsom, because he did the wrong thing. I am going to ensure that as we continue to go through COVID, as we get on the other side, our public schools are going to stay open, ladies and gentlemen. I will do that as your governor.

I also want to touch on just a couple more things, then I'll take the chance to meet everybody individually. But a few more things, particularly as we've traveled the state, a large part of where we were in the last, last week and a half, very smoky. Tremendous fires all throughout our state. We were up in Redding, we were in Chico, and in the Central Valley.

I'm going to put our state on a war footing when it comes to wildfire preparedness. To have a governor that's going to actually do the brush management, do the fuel reduction, do what we need to do in our forests that this governor won't do because he's a captive on the far left. We have to do it. I will do it as governor.

And I'm going to be the first governor in over a decade that's going to say we are going to build more water storage in California. We're going to build reservoirs in California. So incredibly important for all of us, no matter where you live in the state. And I can absolutely tell you, having spent a lot of time with the folks in the Central Valley, our agriculture, they're dying for leadership. Because we know what the right thing to do is, and we have reservoirs that have been on the books, as the senator knows, that have been planned for a long time, but we haven't had the political will to actually build them and make them happen. I am going to.

I know how important water was. All the work that we did in San Diego as I supported desalinization, as I supported when we raised our dam line in San Vicente, as we moved forward on the largest water recycling project in California right now, in San Diego. It's an all of the above strategy but it requires action. This governor gives you a bunch of rhetoric but he never takes action on any of the things that matter. I'm going to make sure that we have that water that we need in California.

And I would just say lastly, I understood very clearly when I was mayor, that if we don't have safe cities, we don't have anything. I will know as governor if we don't have a safe state, we don't have anything. And I will tell you, particularly in this time where we are seeing crime at a 13-year high in California, we are seeing murders up 30% across our state, we see a governor that has rolled back consequences for actions with law after law, that he has done. I am going to put victims first and criminals in jail. That is going to be my approach. It's a vastly different approach than this governor's doing.

And I will tell you that this past summer I had literally hundreds of protesters out in front of my house. Night in, night out, all the time, yelling at me, yelling my family, yelling at my kids: defund the police. And I said you know what, you can keep coming back as many nights as you want. I didn't defund the police in San Diego; I increased the budget. I increased the budget because I understand what we all know. That if we want the best and brightest men and women to?who wear that badge protecting us day and night, we better darn well give them the tools, the training and the support necessary to be successful. And what leadership is all about is standing up and doing what's right, not what's politically correct. That's what we need a leader and a governor who understands that.

And while I saw my fellow colleagues, mayors, big cities across California this past year, they all came out and thought it was the politically correct thing to do, to defund their police departments. Guess what they're all doing now. They're putting money back into the budget, right? Because of what they've seen and because they realized it was such a failure. I'm going to make sure, first day I'm in office, as I said before, that we're going to support safe neighborhoods, we are going to support our families because every California has the right to feel safe and in reality, to be safe.

And so if you believe like I do that on these and a whole host of other actions that it's actually time to have a governor who's going to step up, who's going to tell you what he's going to do, and then actually do it, a governor who's going to fight for you, a governor who's going to be accountable, and a governor who has the track record of working to actually get results, who got elected in a deep blue city in a deep blue state. Why? Because I stand up for the courage of my convictions. And I'm going to work with all of you to do what's right for this state. We're going to get California back. It's time for a California comeback, ladies and gentlemen. And with your help and support I will tell you, I can't wait to be the next Governor of the great state of California.

Thank you very much, guys. Thank you for being here. I'm so happy. We've got some pizza it looks like, we some food, and I'd like to have a chance to go around and say hi, to meet each of you individually one on one. Thank you for caring about our great state. Thank you, guys.