Comedian and podcast host Adam Carolla said he's joining the exodus from California and took some parting shots at "sociopathic" Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom.
During his appearance on Wednesday's "The Sage Steele Show," Carolla was asked how he could still live in Los Angeles, a question he responded to with a loud groan and exclaimed, "It's horrible."
After telling host Sage Steele how he grew up in L.A. and that his comedy roots were made in the city, Carolla insisted it's "time to move."
"I have twins, and they're in their senior year of high school and I couldn't- I didn't want to pick up and, you know, tear up their roots, you know? So people always go, ‘When are you leaving?’ And I go, I will be attending their high school graduation in a U-Haul," Carolla quipped.
"That's a sad testimonial about California and sort of recent downturn in L.A. as well, because growing up out here, nobody left. You'd be a fool to leave, you know. And the notion of moving out of L.A. and going to like one of the Carolinas or Nashville… You watch the beginning of ‘The Beverly Hillbillies,’ they lived over here and then they came to where we are, and I was already there," he said. "Moving to a place like Wyoming or something would have been unfathomable, unheard of."
He teased that Texas, Florida, the Carolinas and Tennessee are among "15 places" he is considering moving to out of desperation of getting out of California, a move he's officially "decided" on.
"And that's sad because I don't even have a place that I need to go," Carolla said. "There's a difference between going ‘I want to live out my retirement years in Maui' or ‘I got to move to Arizona because I have bronchitis’ or something. This ain't that. This is just I have to leave. I don't even know where I'm going. This isn't me cheating on you for another woman. This is 'I hate you so much. I'm moving into a motel room and not dating for six years.'"
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Carolla called California's problems "self-imposed" and "super avoidable," insisting that the Golden State never "pumped the brakes."
"I say to a lot of people like, when's it end? When do we change course? And the number one answer is, 'We haven't bottomed out yet. We're getting near it. We haven't totally bottomed out.' And then I say, ‘Why is it necessary to bottom out?’" Carolla wondered. "It's like saying, you know, I was looking for some stuff in my son's room and I found some syringes and a baggie of heroin. But he hasn't flatlined yet, okay? I have not walked in and seen foam coming out of his mouth or him convulsing. And you go, 'Yeah, I know, but why don't you get him in some treatment now?' And you go 'Because his heart hasn't stopped yet.' And it's like, ‘Yeah, I know, but why do we have to bottom out?’ We know where we're going. Let's reverse course. California and Los Angeles can't do it."
He then cited the 2021 recall effort to oust Newsom and how "we vote him right back in" followed by the election of Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, insisting she won because she's a "woman of color" and that her "super competent" opponent Rick Caruso was rejected because he was "old," "White" and "rich."
"We get what we deserve, and we deserve it," Carolla told Steele. "I mean, my mom right before she died, I was like, 'Listen, I'd rather let Larry Elder be the governor than Newsom. And she's like, 'I don't know about' - what's funny about her- super progressive White lady, but Larry Elder being Black doesn't mean anything to her because he's on the wrong side, right?… So she goes, 'I don't know who Larry Elder is, but I know Gavin Newsom's a Democrat.' And I'm like, that's how we vote. Like Dumbo moms. It's like ride or die with Gavin Newsom. And it's like, can you just admit you made a mistake and try something else? And it's like, no, we cannot."
Carolla went on a tear against Newsom, who he called a "narcissistic douchebag" and a "slippery eel of nothingness."
"He says nothing. He says nothing," Carolla said. "He's a sociopathic, narcissistic, empty bag. And we vote for this guy. He says nothing."
"He doesn't have to," Steele responded.
"He doesn't have to. That's the scary part of this equation," Carolla exclaimed. "My mom is voting for Gavin Newsom no matter what that pile of s--- does. And he's insane."
Carolla recalled interviewing Newsom in 2013 and how he stumped the then-lieutenant governor for suggesting only Black and Hispanic residents fall victim to predatory check cashing places in the tense viral exchange.
"He's a buffoon. He's an idiot," Carolla said. "I said to him what's going on with traffic? We have such horrible traffic in L.A., especially, the worst in the world. Like, why aren't we doing something about it. Why isn't there a plan? Where's our traffic czar? What's going on? He goes, ‘I saw this billboard. I kind of liked it. It said, ’You're not in traffic. You are traffic.' It doesn't mean anything. The point is, that's how he talks."
"I told him 10 years ago, I go, 'Look, we got a homeless problem. And the homeless problem are people with mental issues and drug addiction. That's the homeless.' And he goes, 'Let me tell you the real face of homeless: mother of two, divorced, full-time minimum wage job, doesn't have anywhere to go.' And I said, that's not homeless! It's drug-addicted people with mental disorders. And he tried to explain to me ten years ago that the real face of homeless was a sober mother of two who was freshly divorced and had a full-time job at McDonald's," he continued.
"He's a narcissistic 10-cent head buffoon and nobody knows it. I don't know- or people in California are too dumb to realize who he is," Carolla stressed, later adding. "The real problem, getting back to my poor dead mom, is they cannot course correct. They can't just go, 'I made a mistake. This guy's an idiot. I shouldn't have voted for him.'"
