Ahead Of Tonight’s CNN Gubernatorial Debate, Steve Hilton On No Federal Tax Credits This Year, ParaBros Politics, L.A.’s Next Mayor & California’s Spirit

“People actually want to be in California and in L.A. particularly, and so I think we don’t have to go crazy,” says gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton on the need for greater film and TV tax incentives in the Golden State and from the federal government.

“We just have to match the best, and we have to be as good as the best,” the Brit-born ex-host of Fox News’ The Next Revolution adds of the lucrative jurisdictions of the UK, Canada and Europe. “Once we’ve done that everyone will want to be here because it’s better here. We just got to take the tax argument off the table for the production decision, and then we’ll win.”

Talking to politicians from both parties, there’s always a need in interviews to navigate around their talking points and stump lines. It’s a dance: They want to stay on message, and you want to have a conversation and get some news out of it.

A seasoned veteran of UK elections for Britain’s Conservative Party, Hilton is trying to sell his MAGA-lite approach out here on the very blue West Coast. Yet, unlike many of his fellow Trump-following brethren, Hilton is prepared to engage. He’s also open to saying he doesn’t know when he doesn’t have an answer, something you hear very rarely on the American campaign hustle.

Perhaps that’s just a tactic of a contender behind in the polls and scratching away to be the first Republican to lead California since Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps, with an eye on the next prize beyond Sacramento, it’s also a consummate operative in action. Perhaps, and most likely, it’s both and more.

With a head-to-head debate coming up Wednesday night at 6 p.m. PT on CNN with his Democratic rival Xavier Becerra, Hilton took time away from the campaign trail to talk about the race and his plans. We discussed how ailing Hollywood can grow strong again, AI, the role and the reach of Trump and ICE. Hilton offered opinions on his opponent and the L.A. Mayor’s race between incumbent Karen Bass and current poll-topper Nithya Raman. Of course, this being Hollywood, the well-connected candidate also addressed the $111 billion ParaBros merger, the sudden settlement and (with a cameo by Spencer Pratt) the moves in DC toward a bipartisan federal film and TV tax credit.

DEADLINE: The first thing Steve I want to talk about is the proposed federal film and TV tax credit. This is seen, at least right now, as a bipartisan measure. Trump is obviously behind it. His arch foe Adam Schiff’s also behind it. So, strange bedfellows. California will clearly be a great beneficiary of this. With all that hype, is it possible to get this passed by the end of the year?

STEVE HILTON: I think it’s very unlikely.

DEADLINE: Full points for honesty.

HILTON: I’d love it to get passed. I’ve been in close conversation with Jon Voight and Steven Paul, for example, and Spencer Pratt. We’re all behind it, no question. But I just don’t see the votes for it in Congress, frankly. Now I’d love it to pass. I hope I’m wrong. I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but I think that it’s unlikely to get the votes.

DEADLINE: Is it unlikely to get the votes because of the strange bedfellows, or do you just think because of the calendar with the midterms and then the lame duck Congress? Is it just simply there’s just no time?

HILTON: It’s mainly the calendar.

DEADLINE: Really?

HILTON: Also, the incorrect assumption among those who either are ignorant of the real economic realities or just don’t care and just want to pander to their own districts.

DEADLINE: What do you mean by that?

HILTON: I mean those who say, “Why on Earth should we be bailing out Hollywood celebrities?” I just think that’s a simple, totally false argument. But I think that it’s powerful. If you’re representing some district somewhere that has had zero connection with the entertainment industry, and that’s most districts, why would you vote for this tax credit? Why would you risk any political capital for this? Sadly, I just think it’s very unlikely.

DEADLINE: I disagree, but I know that argument…

HILTON: Absolutely. Which is exactly why I’ve put so much effort into making developing a really strong California package because I don’t think we can rely on the feds to come to our rescue. I don’t think we can, and so we have to save ourselves here. That’s the starting point for me. Second point is that I feel very strongly, and I say this everywhere I go, like the other week, we had a number of entertainment industry events here in L.A., roundtables with unions and others, and of course I said it to them: The mission as the next governor to me is turning around California’s business climate.

DEADLINE: Why?

HILTON: Because Dominic, everything is too hostile to business. All businesses, right? The litigation that you face, the energy cost, you know, all of those things: taxes, regulations, insane red tape driving business away. That’s my argument. However, I always say there are two specific industries that need emergency help right now because they are collapsing. One of them is agriculture, and the other is entertainment.

They’re iconic industries for California. We have to save them. I say that to every audience, not just when I’m in L.A. County.

DEADLINE: On both of those, but the entertainment industry specifically, can they be saved as we know them?

HILTON: Let me say this, broadly, I agree with the argument that we shouldn’t be doing what is sometimes called a race to the bottom with tax incentives. I agree with that as an economic theory, right? But we don’t live in a world of economic theory. We live in the real world, and in the real world, that’s what’s happening. I may not love the fact that UK and Hungary and now New Jersey are doing these incredible …what you could call bribes, right, or tax incentives. But they are doing them, and so we got to compete.

DEADLINE: Secretary Becerra has not pledged he will uncap the tax credits, as you have, but everyone acknowledges that even with the state’s tax credits already at $750 million, there’s more to be done.

HILTON: Agree.

DEADLINE: We’ve already seen that in the last session with the post-production credit. But you’ve also talked about in your policy papers, and I read them, as this is an investment, not a handout. But to go to your earlier point, do you not worry that a federal tax incentive will lead to a race to the bottom with the UK, Canada and other countries?

HILTON: I think that the difference is that we have an inherent advantage here.

DEADLINE: How so?

HILTON: Because people want to be here, so you have to be bribed to go elsewhere.

People actually want to be in California and in L.A. particularly, and so I think we don’t have to go crazy. We just have to match the best, and we have to be as good as the best. Once we’ve done that everyone will want to be here because it’s better here. We just got to take the tax argument off the table for the production decision, and then we’ll win.

DEADLINE: Speaking of winning, even though a federal judge has yet to sign off on the antitrust settlement, it looks like David Ellison will get his mega-merger. With all it took to get him and us here, what’s your stand on that, and what’s your concerns about job losses?

HILTON: I see it as a long-term growth story.

I mean, I haven’t particularly weighed in on it, honestly, and I’ve consciously done that because I think it’s already been politicized too much.

What I do want is I want to see the industry grow, and I want to see jobs not just protected but increased. So, I do think that that means successful, profitable companies. In that sense, I trust the market process here. This should, long term, guarantee the health of the industry. That’s my sense of it. That’s why I certainly haven’t weighed in to oppose it. I’m not a cheerleader for it, but I think that it’s certainly not something that I would want to weigh in on and encourage or discourage either way.

DEADLINE: Something or someone you have weighed in on many times in the past is California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who I believe you once called a hack. He took the lead in going after Paramount and WBD with that antitrust suit in July. He was also the one who struck a deal with Ellison earlier this month, tossing a lot of his antitrust concerns aside.

HILTON: Indeed.

DEADLINE: Was it political pressure from Gavin Newsom and others that caused him to back off everything?

HILTON: I think the whole case was entirely political driven. I think that the substance of his case just wasn’t there.

That’s why I always sensed that it was totally driven by politics, by wanting to look as if he’s sticking it to a Trump-supporting billionaire. That’s what I think this was motivated by.

I mean, look at what Rob Bonta, you know, what’s his main message in his campaign for re-election? I sued the Trump administration, whatever many times. That’s his message. It’s not I’ve cracked down on crime, or I’ve made our communities safer. It’s not I’ve cracked down on the cartels or any of these other things that he could have been focusing on. It’s I sued the Trump administration. So, this is to me a proxy for that: I’m suing a Trump-supporting billionaire.

DEADLINE: Were you surprised he and the 11 other blue state AGs came to a settlement with Ellison after the leaked threats that Paramount would leave LA?

HILTON: No, I’m not surprised that it collapsed. Because they cobbled together some case, which was laughable when it was actually tested, in a way. I feel sorry for the other AGs that went along with it. They saw political opportunity as well, and were hoodwinked by him, I think.

DEADLINE: You would be involved to some degree in all this if you win in November. There have been a lot of criticisms about the settlement. Obviously, there’s a judge in Oakland, a Biden-appointed judge, who has some very serious questions about the deal and hasn’t signed off on it yet. There’s also been an intervention by Cory Booker….

HILTON: Dominic, these people don’t know what they’re talking about. Honestly, it’s so frustrating to me. They’re just performative idiots.

DEADLINE: Bonta? The judge? Booker?

HILTON: David Ellison is a guy who loves this industry. David Ellison is someone who loves movies and loves this industry and loves California and loves Los Angeles. Now, I’m not sort of cheerleading for this.

DEADLINE: It does sound like you are …

HILTON: No, as I say, I do love Spencer and think he’s fantastic. Spencer’s been cheerleading for this, and I think that’s great, and I love that he’s done that. I’m focusing my campaign on reducing costs and get California back on track.

DEADLINE: So, you don’t think you don’t think Ellison was serious when it was leaked and later confirmed that he was going to leave? You think that was negotiation?

HILTON: I don’t know. I can’t see into his mind. But I know that most of the people, businesses who’ve left California, love California. They’ve just been driven out by crazy policies and hostility from the government. This was another case of that. I mean, again, it’s just obvious to me that David Ellison is someone who loves this industry and wants to make it thrive in California, and that’s great, and I agree with that.

DEADLINE: Let’s see into your mind for a sec: You are behind in the polls, let’s just be honest. And with the lead Becerra has, he’s running a ghost campaign, but you are going to be with him on stage later Wednesday…

HILTON: Yeah.

DEADLINE: He is running a very traditional, “do no harm” campaign and you, like Andy Burnham and Trump, are taking a different way to run for office and then to govern now.

HILTON: Well, I think that after all my political work, moving to America, teaching at Stanford, being involved with start-ups and then offered a new career in the media hosting on Fox News, I really feel very conscious of who I am and the working-class background I came from. And so, going to the election campaign, the parts of this that I most I most feel at home in when I’m with regular people, like really, I really like I love doing our townhalls…

DEADLINE: Yes, but you are so far behind right now. There isn’t a single poll that has you even, let alone ahead.

HILTON: I did Mark Halperin’s show the other day, and I made the argument to him that the polls are flawed.

He kind of amplified it.

He said, “Look, any you can’t do a good poll unless you have a good model of who the likely electorate is.” So, paraphrasing, right now with everything that’s going on in California, the level of dissatisfaction and turmoil, and the fact that you’re both kind of new candidates, I don’t know how you would you could predict what the electorate is in California today. That’s actually reflected in the differences in the polls. So, you have a traditional series that don’t change their assumptions about who’s going to show up and vote. Big gap, 20-points, 25-point gap, of course. Other polls that are just a bit more fine-tuned in terms of likely voters. It’s a much smaller gap, but we’re still behind. Yeah, like eight points behind, not 30 or 25.

DEADLINE: To that, trying to expand your base, you have an immigrant story, but there was a blowback earlier this week to your English only in California schools remark, especially here in L.A. County, which obviously is a majority Latino county. How do you how do you factor that, knowing perfectly well that that’s going to be thrown at you in the debate?

HILTON: I think it’s completely uncontroversial. Reed Hastings, for example, who is you know he’s a Democrat, he’s a great supporter of Democrats, had exactly the same position when he was chairman of the state board of education. How is anyone supposed to succeed and climb the ladder of opportunity in in California or America, for that matter, if you don’t speak English?

DEADLINE: I’ll play devil’s advocate here. How could you expect to climb the ladder of opportunity in L.A. County if you don’t speak Spanish? Or to use your own words on Fox: “This is our country. We speak English here.”

HILTON: In America, how are you’re going to be a startup founder if you don’t speak English? How are you going raise money on Silicon Valley’s Sand Hill Road? It’s insulting and it’s patronizing, and it’s exactly why right now you have a total crisis of literacy with huge numbers not proficient in English. It’s a total disaster.

DEADLINE: You have been very clear that you are you are a supporter of Donald Trump. So, do you feel that what we have seen with the immigration raids and abductions – especially with American citizens have been plucked off the street and kids plucked off the streets, put in detention centers, sent to overseas – how do you factor that into your campaign, and how do you factor that into being governor?

HILTON: It’s nothing compared to what Xavier Becerra did when he was Secretary of Health and Human Services under Biden sending thousands and thousands of Latino children directly into the hands of child sex and labor traffickers.

DEADLINE: Whoa…

HILTON: As a result of his personal decisions, in order to try and launder his reputation, because he didn’t like the TV pictures of kids in camps that he was responsible for, because he was so utterly incompetent. So instead of actually dealing with the problem, he dismantled the checks and the vetting for where these children should be sent, That was his job, because he was responsible for the Office of Refugee Resettlement. That’s under HHS. Today, there are still over 300,000 missing, unaccounted for. Some of them may have aged out of the system. They may have returned to the country they came from. We don’t know. What we do know is that of that number, because their ages are recorded when they came across the border, 100,000 are under 10 today.

DEADLINE: The numbers of lost and abandoned children may differ, but what happened at HHS under Becerra is undeniably heartbreaking. It’s also a big part of this campaign. But, in the context of two wrongs don’t make a right, I feel like you’re dodging my question about Trump and ICE in California.

HILTON: Well, I’m very happy to talk about it. Let’s break it down. First of all, a lot of this is their refusal to just engage in normal legal cooperation under California’s sanctuary state law. There’s no reason for this this confrontational attitude with immigration enforcement. It’s entirely political and performative. All of this drama and confrontation and rage has been created entirely by Democrat politicians.

DEADLINE: Steve, you can’t honestly say that you don’t think that the administration has taken a very confrontational approach. If you just take them on their initial word that they were going to arrest criminals, and what they are doing is hauling children, families of service members and legal American citizens into detention camps …

HILTON: If they, well, if you look, what they say about that is, and first of all…

DEADLINE: I’m asking what you say as the Republican candidate for governor about that. What you would say to the people of L.A. who live in fear, who have seen family members taken?

HILTON: (PAUSES) I’ll tell you what I would do, which is lower the temperature on this whole issue.

As governor, I know all the people involved, and I will get on the phone, meet in person, and say, right, we need to sort this out. I don’t want to see any of this going on in California. Let’s focus on what the priorities are and work together calmly and cooperatively to make that happen, which is to focus on the people that, where there’s a broad consensus, should be removed from the country.

DEADLINE Which are?

HILTON: Illegal immigrants who’ve committed some other kind of crime, especially violent crime. Let’s work on that together. That’s what I would do. So, I’m not really interested in so much in you know commenting on what’s happened in the past, I’m just telling you what I would actually do as governor, which is to lower the temperature, work together within the sanctuary state law to focus on removing the people who most Californians would agree shouldn’t be here. All the time you’re hearing these stories of crimes committed by people who everyone agrees should not be here, but judges are releasing them. Local law enforcement is releasing them, not notifying immigration enforcement, and they go back into the community, and that’s happening all the time. This whole argument is broken as far as I’m concerned.

DEADLINE: On a much less human scale, at least for now, another argument that some people feel is broken is artificial intelligence or superintelligence, as Trump likes to call it. There are a lot of concerns, especially because the hub of AI in this country is here in California. This is what we have created in many ways. Newsom has put in what he says are various safeguards and guardrails that are going to protect people and institutions. If they’re even effective, they only go as far as the state line. With all the doom and gloom, even from the CEOs themselves, what do you think needs to be done with AI?.

HILTON: Yeah, I think it’s a huge question, and we got to take it very seriously.

I think that we’re leading, and I want us to continue to lead. That’s the first point. I want us to continue to lead this incredible industry, just as we’ve led so many others. I want to keep it here in California, not drive it away, which is what current policies would do. So that’s the first point. And the second point, I actually want to see more of it here?

DEADLINE: More AI?

HILTON: Pretty much all the job creation from this new wave of technology is happening in other states. The high-end manufacturing, construction, infrastructure, all in Texas, Nevada, Arizona, elsewhere. You saw Nvidia, fantastic Bay Area success story last year announced a half trillion-dollar investment in America, none of it in California. Like, can we please have the jobs and investment from this industry here rather than chasing it out to other states? That’s a very important point.

On that question of regulation, I think there’s some easier and harder questions here. One of them is protecting children. I don’t think we’re doing enough at the moment. It’s all very haphazard and random. It’s being rolled out in ways that are just, I think, very dangerous.

You know, 11 years ago, I wrote a book, More Human, arguing that children shouldn’t have smartphones. I think the Australia ban is a waste of time because it’s not aiming at the real target, which is the device. It’s not the apps. It’s the device, the smartphone. That’s the problem. We’ve got to get smartphones out of kids’ lives.

Also, there’s way too much involvement of the tech companies in in core academic processes like setting curriculum and so on. That’s been really corrupt and that’s got to end. Secondly, I think we had we need an immediate pause on AI in the classroom. Immediate. I think that L.A. Unified has done that, and I agree with that. And I want to see that statewide. Not for long, right? Just a pause while we actually evaluate how and if, if and how we want AI to be used in education. There’s very concerning reporting of what what’s being described as cognitive stunting, where you have the introduction of AI too early, and it’s actually changing kids’ ability to think. So I think that shouldn’t be a difficult thing to get agreement on.

DEADLINE: Except if you are a tech company…

HILTON: Yes

DEADLINE: On Wednesday night you’re going to be meeting your opponent, Secretary Beccera. It might be the only time you actually get face to face with him before November. CNN are hosting this with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating. There’s going to be a lot of topics that we’ve discussed here coming up like the film industry, tax credits, and Paramount Warner Bros merger. You’re a seasoned television performer, how did you prepare for this debate?

HILTON: What I’ve been doing the last year and a half, honestly. Traveling the state, meeting people, understanding what’s going on, and responding to their questions. That’s the true answer. I’ve been preparing for five years for this debate with the work I‘ve been doing is what I would say to that.

DEADLINE: I’m not throwing any shade on you at all but let’s assume the polls are correct, and you don’t win. What are you going to do next?

HILTON: I don’t know. I really haven’t thought about it. I really haven’t.

DEADLINE: Steve?

HILTON: I swear, all my thought process is, “How are we going to start?” You know what comes first? I’m thinking its very important to establish a good relationship with the leaders of the legislature. That’s going to be crucial. I want to make, you know, phone them straight away. Let’s get together, the mayors of the big cities. You know we got to work together. We got to solve some problems…

DEADLINE: Let me ask you then, because you brought up big cities, who’s going to be the next mayor of L.A.?

HILTON: It’s hard to tell, but it seems to me like the momentum is with Nithya, doesn’t it? I think that there’s some justice in that.

DEADLINE: Why?

HILTON: Whatever one may think of Nithya Raman or Karen Bass, and I haven’t met either of them, so I’m really not judging, and I’m not weighing in. I don’t have a vote in LA. But I do think that there’s something about rewarding the level of failure that Karen Bass has presided over that’s very hard for voters to do that.

My attitude is also I’m going to have to work with either of them, and I’m looking forward to working with either of them, you know, to make things happen. Especially in L.A., it’s a hugely important relationship because we got the Olympics coming up. I mean, it’s just like an absolutely central thing that we got to get right.

DEADLINE: Is to get things right why you are running?

HILTON: (LAUGHS) Truly I’m running because I love California.

The reason I felt so at home here, as soon as we got here, and wanted to stay here and be here and be part of the story of California, is that I love it. It’s not just the physical beauty and the weather and all those things we can see and touch, but there’s the soul and a spirit of California that is just so precious.

DEADLINE: I hear a stump speech starting…

HILTON: Truly, I think that’s what’s being crushed by what’s happened over 16 years of this one-party rule. The spirit of California is the rebel spirit, I often call it, and we got this government that’s just so weighing us down. We’ve got so much potential, and we can, you know, do anything, build anything, make anything, grow anything. We don’t. You just need the government to get its basic things right, and then Californians will do the rest. I don’t want to tell people how to live their life.

DEADLINE: All politicians do, especially the ones who say they don’t.

HILTON: I really don’t. I want everyone to have the chance to live the life they want in a way that’s affordable and safe and secure. Go about their business and have a fantastic time in this incredible state of ours. That’s all I’m here to do.

Believe it or not, this interview has been edited for length and clarity.