Transcript of #297 Nick Shirley - Inside California’s $222 Billion Medi-Cal Crisis New

Nick Shirley, didn't expect to see you back so soon.

Yeah, me neither.

What do you bet? Turns out there's lots of fraud to uncover in the United States, huh?

There is so much fraud here in the United States, it's unbelievable, dude. Did you—

so hold on, did you go right to California from Minnesota?

So after Minnesota, I was like, okay, the threats are pretty high right now after exposing like billions of dollars. Let me focus on something different, but let me still focus on fraud. So I focused on election fraud in California. I was like, that would probably maybe take a little bit of the pressure off me for a little bit as far as like the death threats and just like going— having a group like the Somalians coming after me. So okay, let's go after election fraud. And then a few weeks later, I then did go after the hospice fraud. And that—

damn, dude, that was bad. Why'd you pick California election fraud? I'm just curious.

Because they're the biggest state in the country and they're one of the states that don't require voter ID. So I really just want to show people how easy it is to vote in an election here inside the United States in a place that does not require voter ID.

Have you heard of— we're going to get into that. I'm just curious. I've been hearing a lot of The voter fraud's coming out of Venezuela, like from a national standpoint. Have you heard this shit?

I really haven't.

You haven't?

I heard like the— like that maybe like the Dominion machines are— yes, are there?

Yes.

I haven't looked into it.

Smartmatic, is that who owns them? I don't know. This is all allegedly, allegedly, but I've been hearing a lot of sources talking about that it all kind of is orchestrated from Venezuela. But I don't know, I'm just curious.

I would like to go.

It's very, it's very— I don't know if I should say conspiracy-ish, but I can't think of another word right now. It's kind of conspiracy-ish, so I haven't really, I haven't really touched on it yet because I can't, you know, there's a lot of wild shit out there, but I'm hearing it more and more and more.

If you can hook me up with a group of special ops guys, go out of Venezuela, I'll go look into it.

I know a couple special ops guys that will go to Venezuela with you. So yeah, actually, I will fucking hook you up. I'll call them up tonight and see if they will be interested in going down with you.

I'm down. Hablo español. I'm ready.

Do you really?

Yeah, I speak fluent Spanish.

No shit. Where'd you learn that?

In Chile. Santiago.

Mission trip?

Yep.

Nice. Nice.

I'm a dual threat.

Nice. Let me give you an intro here. Nick Shirley, a bold 23-year-old independent journalist who's taken the internet by storm with fearless on-the-ground investigations, known for exposing stories the legacy media won't touch, from immigration debates to government waste. Uncovered alleged massive fraud in Minnesota's taxpayer-funded programs, testified before Congress about the fraud taking place in Minnesota and all across the United States. Currently uncovering millions in dollars of fraud in California for fake hospice care facilities and daycares. Fuck, man. And as you know, before we get going, got a couple things to knock out.

One, yes, these are so good—

Vigilance League gummy bears.

I ate like the whole pack last time within a few days.

Nice. And we got a Patreon account turned it into quite the community. And so they get the opportunity to ask every single guest a question. This is from Robert Simmons. Have you had any luck with any federal investigators taking what you've found and expanding investigations? And do you think at some point there will be any real indictments or convictions of state officials who have allowed it or are covering it up?

Yeah, I think I've had a lot of success. They actually just opened up a new task force, fraud task force, where a bunch of departments of the government are now going to be talking together. If they see an issue at Treasury and they see an issue at another department where they weren't communicating, now they're going to communicate. And I think we will start to see prosecutions ramp up.

Vance, just— he's the lead on that, isn't he? Is this the same thing?

Yes.

So what is it that— what is the difference between this and DOJ?

This essentially isn't like a new— I don't think it's a new department. It's a task force. And now, like, all these departments inside the government, like, you have Treasury, you have the people who are over the housing, you have all these departments are now going to be talking together. You have the HHS that's going to be talking with Treasury. If there's a huge amount of money going somewhere and they think it's suspicious, they're going to talk because before they weren't talking.

Right on.

And that's why the fraud got so big.

You think you are the main component of the reason that happened?

Yeah, I think so. JD even told me that.

Did he really?

Yeah. I met with him and he's like, you're one of the main reasons why this is happening. Wow.

How's that feel?

It's pretty cool.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's just cool to know that, like, your efforts can be seen by government officials and, like, change can be brought out.

That's right.

Which is cool for, for me to see, at least.

Pretty fucking cool what you're doing, man.

Yeah, it's fun. It's fun and scary at the same time.

How would— so the death threats died down a little bit?

I mean, after Minnesota, that was very— that was really crazy. And especially after the shootings as well that took place in Minnesota, that did not help. Yeah, that was pretty wild just because everyone wanted to blame on somebody and then they were blaming it on me. I'm like, I had nothing to do with that.

Well, are you talking about the, like, the ICE shootings?

Yeah.

They were blaming that on you.

A lot of like the leftists were trying to blame it on me. I'm like, no, I'm not the one who decided to get in my car and hit an ICE agent or put myself in position to get shot by an ICE agent.

Holy shit. Yeah, I didn't know they were blaming that on you. I don't think that was a good shoot.

Well, not everyone, but like a slight group of people are like, you have blood on your hands. I'm like, no, I don't. Yeah, it was not me.

Damn, dude. Damn.

Because I mean, the— after that, after I exposed all that fraud, the politician tried to divert the attention from the fraud. And with the ICE coming in, they then like— they even shut down school so people could go out and protest. So they then incentivize these people to go out and protest and were rallying them up. Like Ilhan Omar was in the back of a truck bed yelling at the protesters, riling them up.

No shit. Yeah, I didn't know that. Wow. Did anything happen in Minnesota?

Yeah. So, I mean, for instance, like the Feeding Our Future one, that was one of the main daycares I went to. They had received over $3 million. One of the ladies was fleeing the United States to go to the UK on a one-way trip. She got caught at the airport and now she's been found guilty. And there's people who have been arrested for autism. Who have pleaded guilty to the autism fraud that took place. And right now I think they're just building up the cases. I mean, it really was only about 3 months ago. Yeah, it's all this happened.

It's actually pretty impressive, people, that's already starting to happen. I honestly thought everybody would just go unscathed, like, oh yeah, we uncovered it, cool, let's just keep doing it.

Yeah, all the fraudsters are on high alert right now too.

Good, you're doing good work. So let's move into California.

California fraud is so massive and there's so many different things to look at. When you look at the fraud that's taking place in California, you have Medi-Cal fraud, which is their Medicaid. And for instance, in 2022, they had $108 billion go towards Medi-Cal. The population—

what is Medi-Cal?

It's their Medicaid.

Okay.

So each state kind of calls their Medicaid systems or programs a bit different. California's is called Medi-Cal. It's the biggest Medicaid in the United States because they have the most amount of people. But so in 2022, they had $108 billion go towards Medi-Cal. Their enrollments at the time was 3.9 million. Okay. And so then here, now we're in 2026, the proposed budget for Medi-Cal is now $222 billion and their enrollments 40 million. So they've only—

what? Yeah, hold on, can you say those numbers again? So, 108 million—

billion—

billion for 39.8 million people?

39.9.

Holy shit. So they've over-doubled it for 100,000 people. Well, what's new? What are they getting?

That's what we're all wondering. And actually, the population of California hasn't gone up exponentially either.

Yeah, I checked it. It's plateaued. I thought it was actually a decline, but it's not a decline. It is a plateau since 2020.

Yes.

I pulled it up.

And so when I was doing that, making that video, I looked at this. I said, what is going on here? How is it going from 39.9 enrollment to now 40 million enrollment. Yet there's over $100 billion. And then if you look at the surplus, California at one point is operating in $100 billion surplus before 2020. Now they're operating in a, I believe, around a $20 to $40 billion deficit. So that's an easy place to, to point to why they're in such deficit and where all the fraud is.

So what is going on? How do you— can you say the dates again? So it was 30— it was, uh, $108 billion in when?

2022.

2022. And today in 2026, it's doubled? Yes, over doubled.

The proposed budget's at $222 billion.

Holy shit, dude.

And the thing with the fraud is they want to make it so big and so complex that it's hard to actually crack down on. And so when you have that much money going out to these locations, going out to these hospices, going out to these home healthcares, it makes it very hard to crack down on. Because how do you— like, the web's so deep at that point. Like, there's so many hands that are involved.

How are they doing the fraud?

So hospice and home healthcare, like the most valuable thing to somebody over the age of 65 is their Medicare beneficiary number. And that's even more valuable to a fraudster than a credit card. So they get the medical beneficiary numbers of these people and then they start enrolling them into hospice. And once someone's enrolled in hospice, a lot of people in California don't even know they're enrolled in the hospice until they go to the doctor and they need a surgery or they need an appointment. And they say, well, we can't help you. You're enrolled in the hospice.

So then what happens? So these people— so basically their identity stolen.

Yes.

Somebody puts them in the hospice program. They need a surgery. They can't get a surgery because they'll be—

they'll be denied.

How many people have died because of this?

I don't have the exact numbers on that, but I imagine a lot of people get to the doctors and they're like, wait, I had no idea I was on hospice. CBS even reported on it.

I mean, what if it's a medical emergency?

They're on hospice.

You're having a fucking heart attack.

You're on hospice.

Or an aneurysm or— Holy shit.

So it's very dangerous, actually. I mean, my grandma, when she was dying, they put her on hospice. And basically that means they're just going to give you morphine if you're not feeling good or they're going to, like, treat you, but they're not going to stop you from dying. Like, if you're— they're not going to do some last minute procedure to make sure you stay alive.

So is hospice— is it— what is it, government aid? What does it cover?

So it's underneath Medi-Cal, but it's, uh, it's literally just like— hospice is just like home health care to ease your dying.

That's what I thought.

Yeah. So there's hospice and then there's home health care where they then actually do stuff to help the person stay alive.

It sounds like a really easy thing to fix. Just verify who you're sending the money to. Hey, is so-and-so here? No.

Okay, well, well, the problem is, is they then get these like little offices and they just do the billing and they don't have the, the patient inside of, inside of a hospice because they're going out to the homes because most of these people are on their deathbeds at their home.

Okay.

And so it's very hard.

Okay.

So if you do have that medical beneficiary number, It's super easy to make it look like you're doing stuff because it's just a piece of paper that you're signing off and sending to the state, and then they send you the money from Medi-Cal.

Okay.

Or from Medicare.

I thought hospice was actual centers.

No, that's why they're able to get away with it.

Shit.

And that's how they get the medical beneficiary numbers. Then they can just bill people without them even knowing.

How'd you figure this? How did you How did you figure all this out?

Well, after my Minnesota video, it like surged the country to go look for fraud. And I was kind of nervous to tackle California because I was worried like, okay, if I post a video, Gavin Newsom probably going to try to sue me because Dr. Oz went and did it. He's the head of CMS. So he went and showed that here in California, there's 1,000% increase in these hospices. Armenian and Russian mafias are running, running these hospices. And so I knew there was something there because literally the head of the CMS is going there and talking about that. And so then I started looking into all the data after my video. The HHS actually released the databases of the HHS to then, you could go then scan through it. So I started going through that data and I located these hospices. I said, okay, I'm going to go see what's happening at these. And it turns out that they are just There's just a bunch of plazas in this place called Van Nuys in California, in LA, that just have literally 10 to 89 hospices in one building.

Dude, this, this is just like the Minnesota shit.

Yeah, it might even be worse because, uh, one-third of the hospices in America are in LA County.

1/3 of the hospices in America are in LA County.

I believe so. Yeah. Like one and then like one in every $10 for home health care goes to LA County. It gets really bad.

Whoa, dude. Holy shit. 89 in one building.

89 in one building.

What does that look like?

They're literally these plazas or just these buildings that you maybe drive by and don't think anything of because you've never seen anything ever happen to them. Well, there's a little hospice in a room that's like 8 by 8, and you knock on the door and nobody's there. You can even open the door and there's nothing in it. And then if someone is in it, it's literally like one desk, and, uh, it's one of these, uh, usually Armenians, especially in California. And then you drive out and you walk outside the parking lot and you got like M8 Competitions, you got G-Wagons, you got Cybertrucks, you even have $200,000 Maybachs. Like, these fraudsters are living in complete luxury.

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Yes, Russian and Armenian. So I stroke the Armenians, apparently. The Russians actually got a hold of somebody who knew my mom and said— they called, and then that person then called my mom and said, "The Russian mafia wants me to tell you to make sure Nick doesn't come poking around our fraud." Like, that's not a joke. We were driving in LA, I was working on a separate video. Somebody called my mom and she apparently had— knew some people in that, and she had my mom's phone number. She called my mom, said, "The Russian mafia." Wants to make sure to let you know to have not— Nick not come snooping around our businesses.

How's that make you feel?

I was like, well, probably not going to go check out the Russians. But it is scary because like the Somalians, they were threatening me publicly. Like they had their people talking in these chats there. They were out doing this press conference. It was like they're trying to sell a book. Like they're like— they're like Gavin Newsom out there trying to sell his own book. These people are doing press conferences and whatnot. Some— the Armenians and the Russians, they're a lot smarter than that. They're not going to be doing these press conferences about trying to protect their fraud. And so they're going to work in a lot quieter way. So that was very scary when my mom did get that phone call.

How did your mom take that?

Like, now we're not like used to it, but it's like, hey, Nick, we need to be cautious. Which isn't fun.

Shit, man.

That one was a little— that was a little crazy. Not going to lie.

That's serious.

Yeah, that was serious. I mean, that's serious because, I mean, these people, like you talk about, like the mafia or gangs, like it's real. Like there's certain parts in America where mafias or gangs do have control, but you don't see it as blatantly because they're not rolling around like armed gangs in a favela. It's more so like these are the people who take command and everyone knows it and it's just kind of how it's been and they can kind of blend in.

And well, it's out now.

Yeah, it's out now. So hopefully nothing happens. Sheesh.

Have you talked about this anywhere else?

No, you're the first one, actually.

Oh, great. Oh, great. No shit.

Yeah, that was, that was intense. Honestly, I was, I really like that night. I was just sitting in my bed just thinking, yeah, the Russian mafia knows like we're on to them or that people are on to their scams and their fraud and they're literally making phone calls to make sure I don't come snoop around the fraud that they've been able to get away with for so long.

Damn. But you've been talking about this pretty openly. I mean, it popped up on my radar.

Yeah, because, I mean, I'm doing a public service to the country to try and expose fraud wherever it may be. And I don't care if you're Russian, Armenian, Somalian, American. Like, if you're committing fraud, you're stealing from hardworking legal taxpayers. So either stop committing fraud or you're going to get exposed.

So what is that? How long ago did you expose this?

The Minnesota or—

I mean, no, no, no. The California stuff.

I filmed that back in February.

February? Yeah. What is the response been from everybody else other than the mobs?

Gavin Newsom. He posted a photo of me snooping around, an AI-generated image of me snooping around daycares, trying to depict me as like a pervert, putting like 10 cameras on me.

I saw that.

Where are the children? The overall response, though, has been a lot more positive compared to Minnesota because people are realizing, oh, this is like a systemic problem here in the United States. This isn't a right or left issue. Like, each one of these tax dollars is our tax dollars. So the response has been I'd say even better because people are now seeing like, okay, this is like a big issue.

Yeah. I mean, I remember last time, I think it was last time you were here, there was an estimated $600 billion in fraud in the US alone.

Yeah. 3 to 7% of each tax dollar goes towards fraud here in the United States.

How much?

3 to 7%. So that means that each American is working 25 days out of the year to pay a fraudster.

Wow. Has there been any response from the California government on this other than you running around with a bunch of cameras?

They're trying to act like Gavin Newsom did this and that to stop hospices. I think like back in 2021. But the problem is you can go and sign something, but if you don't actually stop the bleeding, That means nothing.

Mm-hmm.

Because there was over 1,000% increase. There's 1,500 hospices in LA County alone. And yeah, good job. You maybe cracked down on 50, 70 of them, but you have a lot more to crack down on and you didn't stop the bleeding. It's similar to Minnesota where they had a 10,000% increase in funding for autism, yet there wasn't a 10,000% of children with autism. So like these governors like to act like they're doing stuff, but they actually never stop the bleeding. And that's where all the fraud is taking place. Like, stop the bleeding and then maybe you can say I did something. But until then, like, you're just as complicit as these fraudsters because you know what's happening, but you don't stop the bleeding.

How many buildings did you go to that were doing this? 89 in one building. I mean, 89.

Yeah. So CVS reported on the 89. One, I just went to about an area of probably about 2 square miles, and within there, there's the one motel-like building that had like 15 of them in there. There's another one that had about 8 inside of it. There was another one that had— it started off as an adult daycare that then transformed themselves into a hospice and a home health care. So they just got in on all the goods. And altogether, probably around 10.

10 different buildings.

10 different buildings.

What are these people saying to you when you bang on the door, when you approach them? Do they speak English?

Some of them do. A lot of them aren't there. And I say, one guy was there and he said, I'm like, he's like, I've been in this business since 1990-something. I'm like, okay, then what's the justification for a 1,000% increase since you've been in it for so long? And he can't even answer the question. In fact, he blames Dr. Oz.

He blames Dr. Oz?

Yes, he blamed Dr. Oz, saying that he was making all these allegations, and he even blamed Dr. Oz for being fat. Like, that was pretty funny. In the video, the guy's like, I bought Dr. Oz pills and I'm still fat. I'm like, oh, so you're fat because of Dr. Oz? He's like, yes, because of Dr. Oz.

Wow. Wow.

And all— I'm pulling the information straight from these data sets, and so they can't back it up. I'm like, okay. He's like, well, my business is right here. I'm like, okay, great, then your business is right here. You don't even— you're not even registered with CMS. Like, how come you aren't registered with CMS? And then he blames Dr. Oz, and I'm like, well, Dr. Oz has actually only been in that position for maybe a year. Yet they've been getting away with this for years.

What do you think is going to happen with this?

Well, I'm super interested to see what happens with this fraud task force. And I do think if there's not prosecutions or people aren't arrested, then like, I think Americans are just going to lose hope, like lose any faith that they have left in the government because it is literally out there for in the open, this fraud.

I mean, you just said every 25— Americans spend 25 days a year paying for fraud.

Mm-hmm.

25— a month of your hard work that you are sending to the government is paying for fraud.

Yeah, it's crazy. And so in some of these programs too, They're like, oh, well, it's not that much money.

Yeah.

Well, your program, your department allows $7 billion and 1.7% of that goes towards fraud. That's $100 million. That's how much daycare fraud there is in California. That's a very low estimate, by the way.

Yeah.

I'm like, okay, well, that's a lot of money. $100 million.

Where are we going next? We going daycare fraud, voter fraud? What are we doing?

Voter fraud is very big. And I think that's something that's just like so obvious too. It's like, okay, how come in these Democrat states they don't want anyone to show their ID? Like in California, they do not want you to show your ID.

And they don't want you to show your ID.

They don't want you to show your ID. You don't need to. All you have to do is sign the paper. Like a lot of people told me, well, I've tried to show my ID at the place and they look at it like it's like some sort of cancer. Like they're like, don't look at it. Like, we don't need to see it.

Are you serious?

Yes. So I wanted to see how easy it would be for, let's just say, an illegal migrant to vote in California. So this man, he had all the voter register, he had all the— he had all the— what are they called? What are they called? Sorry. He had all the voter rolls. So in California, I want to see how bad the fraud was. So I reached out to this man who's been doing his own investigation on this for years. So he had all the voter rolls. And to receive the voter rolls. It's public. You can get the voter rolls, but you have to get access from, I believe, from the Secretary of State of California. So he had received all the voter rolls and he had been going through it for years. And there's so many stuff, so many red flags inside these voter rolls. For instance, you have people who are said to be 126 years old, 126 years old voting. Then you go to the house and the person's 80 years old. But they voted in 55 elections and they don't require ID. You also have people who are registered to UPS boxes and you can be registered to UPS box, um, but you cannot have that as your domicile address, which is on the voter rolls.

So a lot of people had their addresses to these, uh, UPS stores into these PO boxes. And you can actually do that. And so there's all these problems that could be solved if you were just to show your voter ID when you go and vote. Now, when you do go and vote in California, their way of flagging it is if the signature is not aligned. So there's 39 million people or so in California. Let's say 10 million people go and vote. They are literally saying that we are going to scan each and every single signature, and if the signature is not right, that vote will then be investigated.

Right.

And it's the slant of the signature.

Right.

Who's to say that somebody is not going to go and vote on behalf of Mandy, who's 126 years old, who doesn't even know she's 126 years old, and go up and show say she's Mandy and go and vote. So there's so much voter fraud, it's insane.

This is enraging.

Yeah, it's very enraging.

I mean, it all is. It all is. So you— all you have to do is write a signature? Yes. No, nothing, nothing else.

You just have to say you're that person and then sign the signature. In fact, it was so easy to register to vote in California A lady who is actually a Republican registered her dog to vote. And the dog voted in two elections. The first election, it voted successfully. The second election, the dog got caught because the person reported herself.

You mean the signatures lined up?

Yes.

The dog's signatures lined up, huh?

No, the dog registered to vote. Like the dog had its own name, everything. It registered to vote. Like that's how easy it is to register to vote in California. And it's funny because then I go post that video and I'm like, okay, this is like super simple. A dog registered to vote. You then have Democrats out defending the dog. They're like, you idiot, that was a Republican. I'm like, you realize this isn't a Republican or Democrat issue. A dog was able to vote. And the only reason it got caught was because the owner reported herself. And they're like, well, it didn't count. I'm like, no, it counted. It voted in that first election and that vote counted. Like, it's very enraging because I'm going about showing people these issues that have become controversial that aren't controversial, and then you have people defending it.

What are they saying? I mean, what are they— what, what are they saying?

They're like, they literally said, you idiot, that was a Republican who did that and it got caught. Like, no, that dog still voted. Like, you don't have a problem with the fact that a person without— not a person, a dog without a human body was registered to vote in a U.S. election. Like, we are a first world country. We're the best country in the world, most advanced country. Yet a dog is able to vote in our elections.

Do you have any idea how much voter fraud is going on there? How many fraud— fraudulent votes? A lot. How long this has been going on?

A lot. I mean, if you look at the election, the only state that Trump didn't win were states that didn't need voter ID. And those states are more Democrat. And I don't doubt that he didn't win those states. But it's crazy that the only states that didn't require a voter ID are the states that Trump lost.

What other states don't require voter ID?

Minnesota. In fact, in Minnesota, you can vouch on behalf of other people to vote.

Excuse me?

Yes. So on the day of voting in Minnesota, say you work at a building or people inside your apartment, I believe. You can vouch on behalf of others to vote. So like, say that person can't get to the voting, the voting, uh, place to vote, the voting, voting polls. You can vouch on behalf of other people. So you could take it, take that paper and then have those sign it and then bring it and you're vouching on behalf of those individuals.

So you're voting for multiple people?

Yes. Well, theoretically other people said that's what they wanted and they signed it or whatever. I'm not from Minnesota, so I don't, I don't understand exactly how someone goes and vouches for somebody else, but you can literally vouch on behalf of other people.

And so you just take the piece of paper, go around the corner, sign it with a different signature, bring it in, be like, oh yeah, my buddy wants me to vote for him today.

Theoretically, that could happen. And there's no voter ID either.

Where else?

Um, I want to say— I know New York as well. I don't think they have voter ID. Like Zohra Mondani, he wanted people to show two forms of ID to shovel snow, but you don't actually need an ID to vote. So like they're taking all these issues that are not controversial, making them controversial. So it's very bad.

Yeah, it sounds like it.

Because essentially, Sean, if your vote doesn't matter, what does matter? Like, if people can't trust that their vote actually matters, like, what does matter? Like, we live in a democracy, but how do we know that it's a democracy if our vote doesn't matter?

But you don't have to write your birthday or anything down.

You have to say you're that person and then you sign. You might have to say what your birth date is, but it's on the voter rolls. Like, I don't— I don't vote in California, but That's how you go. You literally show up to the place, say you're that person, and then they give you the ballot and you vote.

I mean, 125 years old. So if somebody writes their birthday down, it was like 1900. Yeah, that doesn't raise—

and there's like hundreds of them, like thousands of them. And I go to the doors, I knock on the door because I have the address from these voter rolls and they're like, no, uh, I'm— she's 81. Like, it's— it is so stupid and it could be solved if someone were just to show their own ID.

What's this month-long election process?

Yes. Then it takes— they can verify an election for up to a month in California as well. So they have these month-long voting, like you can vote for a month long, essentially, like they can count the votes for a month. Like, how can we not— how can we live in a country where they take a literal month to vote? And that just gives time for fraud to take place. And then you say something like that and they get so mad at you. Like, you make a very solid case to show easy it is for an illegal to vote, for instance, and they get so mad at you. Wow, dude, we have some serious problems taking place in the country right now.

Has there been any chatter about how they're going to fix this?

Well, they're trying to pass the SAVE Act, which would require, uh, voter ID in federal elections. In California, they actually just, uh, they got enough signatures to be able to put that on— I think it's a proposition to require Voter ID inside the state of California, and we'll see if it gets passed.

I mean, they still have to enforce it.

Mm-hmm.

It's just like what you were saying earlier about what, uh, Gavin Newsom said. I mean, it's great he tried to fix it, but you still have to enforce it.

Yeah, you still need to enforce it, and you actually need to serve the people of your state, whether they're Republican or Democrat. If this many people want it, it's not like an 80/20 issue. I would say that's a 90/10 issue. I think everyone can come to their senses and say we should show our ID when we go and vote.

Well, what I mean, did you get any— did you get the pulse of the citizens there? Did you talk to anybody? Do they want that?

If you ask anybody and you have a conversation with them, they will come to their senses and say that makes sense. And the majority of people I talk to think it needs to happen. I did speak to one individual. He's like, no, I don't need it. Why would I need that? I'm like, well, you need it when you go to the airport. It's like, even at that, I don't want to do it. I said, well, like, that's the thing. That's the logic of that person who doesn't want it. It's like, it's just too much effort.

How were you received there? Does everybody hate you in California?

No, people love me in California.

Really?

Like, literally everywhere I go, more people love me than don't like me because they're seeing through— they're seeing these scams and these frauds take place. It's just that small group that get upset. It's the fraudsters. They also happen to be the most outspoken, the most violent, and the most vicious.

What's going on on Skid Row?

Skid Row, they will get homeless people to sign these petitions saying that they're somebody to get enough, uh, enough names to then pass like propositions or to be able to pass bills or to be able to like— they'll use homeless people to get votes to be able to go through with whatever political campaign is taking place. That's been happening for a long time. So like Cam Higbee, James O'Keefe, they did a very good exposé on that showing like how easy it is. And people are paying people like $5. Here's $5 for a signature. I've seen that take place on Skid Row as well. We do.

I got something here of children living in tents in Skid Row. What is that all about?

Yeah, so then Skid Row, um, I got— I saved a kid and his mom who were homeless. They had been homeless for about 10 days or so on Skid Row, and I put them in a hotel, put on my social media saying this is happening, and within a few days we got the kid out of the streets and into a shelter where he's now enrolled into school. Meanwhile, there's NGOs that receive millions of dollars inside of Skid Row, and they left the kid and his mom all alone sleeping in a tent next to drug addicts, next to gang members.

This is like a legit single mother trying to care for her kids living in a fucking tent. Yes, Skid Row.

Yeah, because I mean, a lot of homeless people, it maybe happens to them for a week or it happens to them for 2 weeks. They're trying to— they get kicked out of a house and they need to get— they need to get back, put back on their feet. And so then they become homeless, but they have these kids, and these kids should be like the number one priority for a state. And so I was filming this whole separate video and I see this kid in this tent. I said, well, like, who am I to go out and do this journalism? Or who am I to go show people what's happening and actually not be a part of the solution? So I see this kid, I'm like, "Okay, well, this is not happening. Like, we're not gonna let you sleep here in this tent. We're gonna get you in a hotel. I'm gonna make sure we get the hotel, and we're gonna send your mom to— we're gonna send your mom $500, and by that time, we're gonna find somebody to take care of you and your mom." So within literally 3 days, we were able to get a kid off the street of Skid Row into a hotel and then into a housing system that then gets him enrolled into school.

And it had nothing to do with the government.

Good man. Good man. How bad is it? I mean, you've been to California a couple of times before, right?

It's really bad.

Is there any— has there been any improvements?

No. In fact, it honestly just gets worse.

Describe to me how bad it is.

Like homeless-wise, it's everywhere.

What do you mean everywhere?

Like you'll be in Beverly Hills, one block away you'll have a person passed out on fentanyl, or you'll have a person living in a tent. And the quality of life there for people have just come to their senses like, oh, we're just going to live with it. But you don't actually have to live like that. Like this wasn't happening 20, 30 years ago. From everyone I talked to in California, they're like, this is not what California was. That's why people are so upset about it, because now you have these people hooked on fentanyl, they're doing drugs, and then you have a state that continues to give billions and billions of money, but it just gets worse and worse. And so this, this homeless industrial complex that they've created inside of California They've figured out that if they receive more money— well, if we receive more money, why would we stop the solution? Because then we stop receiving more money. And so each person, each NGO is actually incentivized to keep the homeless going because it makes them more money. They're able to buy more properties with that money. They're able to build up their assets and they're able to get rich.

While homeless continues to run like rampant.

Wait, so people are opening shelters? Is this—

yes. So, uh, I have another video coming out I haven't posted yet, and in that video we kind of investigate the homeless industrial complex and we see where all this money's going. Because for instance, $24 billion went unaccounted for just a few years ago. Nobody knows where that money went. Well, money goes somewhere, so you can, you can track it. and these, a lot of these NGOs, they go up and buy these hotels or they buy these apartment complexes, and a lot of times they're actually not even housing homeless people. They're housing low-income individuals and then putting them on that are then on Section 8. And so then the NGOs that then continue to receive money from the government who pay the Section 8. So the person renting the apartment might only have to pay $30. Meanwhile, the government's giving them $1,800 for that apartment.

Mm-hmm.

And so these NGOs, then they just continue to buy up these apartment complexes or these hotels, and they just accumulate more and more and more assets.

So this is a big business.

Big business.

This is happening everywhere.

California is like the worst of it. I think it does happen in other states. Like, for instance, in New York City, their average spend for a homeless person is $81,000. That's more than the median household income. Inside the city, inside of New York City. So take care of one homeless person, it's $81,000 in New York City.

$81,000.

That's how much money.

What does that go to?

To the housing. Like, literally, like, who knows? Like, one of the key aspects is the housing, but $81,000.

And that's more than the median income.

Yeah, it's just equal.

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And it wasn't like that 5, 10 years ago.

There's, there's like nothing in this country that makes a damn bit of sense anymore. No.

And it's actually, it just pisses me off. And I think that's why you're starting to see so many people look at these issues and be like, okay, let's just figure this out because this is costing everyone so much money. Our quality of life's actually not getting better, and we're just seeing a lot of these politicians, these NGOs enrich themselves. Meanwhile, we're still doing our day-to-day, working hard, paying taxes, and all this corruption.

Our country looks like shit. You're describing it right now. Tents, fentanyl needles. Bums everywhere, fucking trash all over the place. Our road system sucks. Our power grid fucking sucks. I mean, it's— then you go to some other countries, it doesn't fucking look like that. No, not everywhere. But, you know, we keep— we keep getting fed this fucking nonsense. Oh, we're the best country in the world. I don't— are we? Are we? We—

we should be.

You're damn right we should be.

That's what makes me mad.

Looks like shit here.

Yeah, it really does. In a lot— in every big city in America, you can go somewhere and you'll see people passed out on fentanyl. For instance, I literally walked over a dead body in San Francisco, and then a little kid then walked over that dead body.

Oh man.

And so it's like this suicidal empathy that's killing our country. And then when you do try to bring out the solution, you're attacked. Like, people come after you for trying to—

it's interesting. I mean, who's— that's, that's what I mean. That's why I was asking, when you go to California or any of these other places, you know, how are you treated? And you're, you're telling me that everybody loves you there, they want you there, they want you to uncover this shit. Where are the attacks coming from? Because I see it, I see it on your social, they're just hammering you. I saw the meme from Newsom's team.

So that's the problem is you like, even if it's 1%, that's a few million people like in the country. So if it's 1%, that's 3 million people, which is a ton of people, and they're going to be a lot louder than the other 300 million. So I'll give you like a good example. I'm at this gas station in California. Some guy comes up and he yells like, "Fuck you, Nick Shirley!" At the same time, some other man comes up to me, he grabs my hand, he says, "You have no idea how many people are praying for you." And so he says it super, uh, silent, like very quietly, very humble. Meanwhile, you had this other person yelling, "Fuck you, Nick Shirley!" So you have that 1% that is literally crazy like literally insane. And then you have the vast majority who see what you're doing and are supporting you. But that 1% is a lot of people. If you're in a crowd of— if you're in a big crowd, 1% can make a big difference.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. What is this new video you said you're working on?

Yeah, it's going to be about The homeless industrial complex in California.

What else you got? When's this releasing?

Yeah, it's going to come out in the coming weeks.

Okay.

I've been traveling a lot, so I need to sit down, be able to edit it all. I'm working on that. I have some other fraud cases I'm looking into.

You want to talk about it? This isn't going to come out for a couple of weeks.

Yeah, we can, we can talk about it.

Let's do it.

Essentially, these NGOs are literally just becoming like these mega enterprises that are receiving millions and millions of dollars And I mean, some NGOs, their assets are upwards of half a billion dollars.

Half a billion dollars?

Yes. They've been able to accumulate that much money in assets and they'll buy like a hotel, for instance, and then they'll value that hotel room for $200,000. And it's really like a 10 by 10 room with a shower in the back. And these aren't just in bad areas like One of the parts I'll show my videos, a hotel in Encino, California. That's one of the wealthiest zip codes in the Los Angeles area. Just next to it are $10 million mansions, and they're going to be bringing in troubled youth and homeless individuals into this hotel next to these $10 million mansions.

I bet they love that.

Yeah. And then people still are still going to vote for a Democrat. Like, people are still going to vote for the people that continue to let this happen. Like, I think Karen Bass is still going to win. Hopefully she doesn't, but I think she might win for mayor again in LA.

Oh boy. Oh man. How about the theft? You remember what, right before what, I guess for the past about 4 years, we've just been seeing just mobs of people ransack Target, jewelry stores, the Apple Store, anything in sight. Is that stuff still going on? Have you seen that stuff going on still?

I think that's slowed down. I think they changed whatever was allowing people to steal upwards of $900 and walk away.

They did change that.

I think they did.

What, they started enforcing the law?

I think they started to enforce the law. I'm not 100% sure on that, but I knew— I know at one point you were able to steal, I believe, upwards of $900.

Do you think that was overembellished?

What do you mean?

Do you think— do you think that the media was overembellishing?

No.

Common? That was— no, I have no idea. I don't— I just— I don't go there. No, I don't go to California. I see what I see. I'm like, I don't need to go there.

No, they weren't actually. In CVS, you have to literally wait for somebody to come and unlock the door so you can buy deodorant. People were stealing everything. In fact, if you just wait a lot— wait around long enough at a CVS in California, you'll catch someone shoplifting. A lot of the stores are just like leaving. They did a lot of damage to the country. Underneath Biden, like underneath those, underneath from like 2020 to 2024, a lot of damage took place. Like damage that is hard to fix.

What do you think motivated them to start enforcing the law?

People leaving the state. A lot of high wealth individuals decided to leave. People complain.

They all left for taxes.

Yeah, but I mean, just like the average person who's living inside that city, they don't want to have to live with that. Like, a mom shouldn't have to worry about her son walking over a dead body like I saw in San Francisco.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like the suicidal empathy that's killing the country, and like this straight-up delusion, like this brainwashing. Like, people can't think critical these days, I feel like.

Well, that's no shit. What else you got coming up? You know, what's piquing your interest?

Like, the fraud's really bad. I do want to get back to doing some, like, international videos. Like, I did a lot of, like, work in, like, El Salvador where I went and showed what was happening. Like, that was super fun to go. And I was like the first one ever to report on the prisons there or to go to the favelas in Brazil. It's just now harder for me to like move around in the United States, like go film a video.

Yeah, I'll bet it is.

Because the fraudsters, like, they're on high alert. Protesters are on high alert too, because a lot of the protesting here in the United States isn't organic either. And they're that crazy 1%. Because I was popular before all this stuff, like, I still had like millions of followers, and now it's gone up exponentially. And fraudsters always complain the loudest and they don't want— they don't want to be exposed.

You're going to have to come up with some good disguises.

I know that's what people keep telling me to do. But also, it's— I actually like just going like as I am, like, okay, answer the question. If you have nothing to hide, just answer the question. If you do, you're going to run or you're going to scream and shout and you're going to expose yourself.

Are you getting a report back to the administration now, or are you— do you have a direct line in?

No. Like me, I think that's why I've been so effective, because I'm not working for the federal government. I'm just a one man going out and doing it. And if they want to see the video on X or on YouTube and then go investigate, go ahead. I do. I wouldn't mind if they, like, sent me— opened up some of the databases. Like, I think they should open up all the databases to the public. And that's why they're actually having such a big problem with like fraud in like New York, for instance. Like the home health care is like the number one business inside of New York right now is home health care. People will sign up to watch their grandmas and make money from the government. But New York doesn't want to give over that information, which is a, which is a problem.

Have you been in contact with Newsom?

Not really, no, no.

He did have some, uh, key points. California acted first. He signed the Senate Bill 664 in 2001 to ban all new hospice licenses, years before the Trump administration started talking about the issue, and extended the moratorium through January of 2027. California is a top fraud recovery state. California ranked 4th in the US in 2024 in dollars received per medical enrollee across civil and criminal investigations, leading all other large states including Texas, Florida, and New York. Trump dismantled federal oversight. Have you heard all this stuff?

I've heard about him with the moratorium. I think that— but like I said, the damage had already been done.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. All right, I got a hot question for you. You ready?

Ready.

All right, so we actually use Claude AI to scrape the internet for the most viral moments tied to your name. And here's what it came up with. There was some controversy around your Channel 5 interview with Andrew Callahan. A lot of people online were bashing you online for the word benevolent. What, what's your response to that interview?

Yeah, that interview with Andrew, it was a 2.5-hour-long interview. He cut it down to an hour-long interview. So imagine me and you come, have this conversation for 2 hours, and you just chop out an hour of the conversation.

Everything that you say? Yeah.

Like, that's not how a podcast works.

Oh, man.

And that was very, like, messed up on his part, I believe, to go out, go about doing that. I was very kind. I let him come to the location where I had told him to film it. He actually made me mad too. But first, so I had— that was like 72 hours after I'd posted the video. I've been off functioning off of literally like 6 hours of sleep that day or 6 hours of sleep those past 3 days. I said like, me and Andrew are boys. Let's do the interview. Okay. I'm like, I don't like— I'm down to have a conversation. In the text prior, he's like, oh, I've been getting doxxed and stuff like that. I said, yeah, like, here's the location. Come film. And so then I see the interview and I see— I'm like, wait, what is this? Like, this is like all chopped up. You don't put in your answers to the questions where, you know, you were wrong as well. Like, that's not a fair interview. And luckily I had filmed it on the back end too.

Nice. Did you release it?

Yeah, I released it.

Good man.

And I'm not going to say that was my best interview by any means. Like, I wasn't functioning at 100%. Yeah. To be honest, I just thought like, like I thought we were boys and obviously we aren't, man. And yeah, I mean, I messed up on the word benevolent. My bad.

Have you heard— have you heard from him since?

He then made a full reaction video to the video. And what makes me mad is he knew that— not to say the city I was in. And he does that in the reaction video. I was like, Kable, you just doxxed me.

What an asshole.

Yeah, exactly.

Wow. Wow. You just met Elon Musk and you were awarded $100,000 from X for your investigative article. What was your conversation with Elon Musk? And is there something bigger coming between you and Elon that you haven't announced yet?

I think we both just wanted to meet each other. And the first thing I said to Elon was just like, thank you. Said, like, thank you for X for having a platform where real-world change can take place. Because all these other social media platforms, like YouTube for instance, I post that Minnesota video, it got 4 million views. I post on X, it got 150 million views. And within 7 days, uh, all together across all social media, across the internet, that video got 4 billion views.

Whoa, whoa, 4 billion. Holy shit, dude.

Yes.

Holy cow.

And I said, thank you.

My whole channel has like 2 billion views.

Yeah. So that Minnesota video—

oh my gosh—

is the most viral video potentially ever in the internet. The most viral video on X. That's what they told me at X as well. And so I said, like, thank you. Like, your platform is where real-world change can happen. Like, this can't happen anywhere else. And I don't think too many people actually, like, say thank you to Elon Musk. Like, do people realize what he's actually done for society? Like, between Starlink, between Tesla, between the, uh, between X, between the tunnels, like, do people realize how much this man has done? PayPal. Too. Like, do people actually realize how much impact this man has had on society? And everyone just wants to demonize Elon Musk. And so I'm sitting there, I'm looking at him just eye to eye. I'm like, I'm like, wow, like, this man has done a lot for society, and he's taking his time to just talk with me. Like, he— I think, I think we both just wanted to meet each other. And to have a conversation.

I mean, not only that, he's also motivated an entire new generation of innovators. Oh, and they're all building— not all of them, but a lot of them. I interview a lot of them. That's it. That's their inspiration. And a lot of them are building, are innovating things that are going to go along with his mission to Mars or whatever, whatever. I mean, it's just, it's It's a— it's, it's huge.

100%. And just—

he's inspired.

Yeah. And just like the drive to still be doing this, like he doesn't need to be like— but he's not money driven.

Yeah.

And everyone wants to get mad at him for having money. I'm like, that's just what happens when you provide such value to the world.

Yeah. Yeah.

And so we talk and I was super nervous to initially go in there. Because like the first floor of X is like, uh, the first— so there's the first floor of X is kind of like more like a common area, and like there's like a cafeteria and they have their offices where they're doing certain stuff. And then you get up to the second level where he's at, and that's like more, more like serious vibe. Like all the lights are dimmed, there's a lot more, a lot more like artwork of like the SpaceX, like the, like X, like the galaxy and stuff like that. And then you get back to where Elon is and he has all his security and there's windows and he has security everywhere, like almost nearly every single window, there's a security guard. And so then his assistant comes and grabs me and I walk over to Elon and he takes my hand, takes me in. We have this conversation and we, like I said, the first thing I said is like, thank you. Like, for what you've done. And, uh, I told him, like, some things I think he— like, that X can improve on.

And then I was super nervous. I had, like, a whole itinerary of stuff I thought I was gonna have to, like, lead this conversation. And then we just started talking about, like, the fraud and his experience with exposing the fraud and, like, how incompetent the government can be at times. He told me, like, in PayPal, when they were building PayPal, they'd, like, come up— they'd make these cases of the people that are committing the fraud and give them to the FBI. And he'd be like, go, like, like arrest these people. And the FBI wouldn't do it, or it'd take a long, longer time. And he kind of talked about how kind of incompetent the government can be. And then we just talked about like how corrupt it is and like how suppressed we could become and what will happen if we do become suppressed and oppressed. From, from the government.

What does he say will happen?

Potentially, like, a war could break out, or states that could start to secede. We talked, I mentioned, like, yeah, like, I— one of the reasons why I got into this is because I started to see what's happening in the UK. I told him this, and he's like, I can't even go to the UK. He's like, he said, I think I'd be arrested. And he says, people don't realize how bad it is until we are oppressed to a point.

Yeah, man.

Can you imagine being in my position, just like sitting there talking with Elon? It was, it was very surreal.

I'll bet it was, man. I'll bet it was.

You want to hear something funny though?

Yeah.

So, uh, I probably had like the craziest 72 hours of my life because within 72 hours I met the richest man in the world, then the most powerful man in the world talks about me in a cabinet meeting, and then I meet the vice president as well, all within 72 hours. Pretty wild, isn't it? Yeah. I also went to 7 different states in between those 72 hours to like make all this stuff happen.

Life's a hell of a ride, isn't it?

Yeah, it really is. It's fun.

I'll bet. It's awesome. Well, Nick, I can't wait to see what you got coming next.

Thank you.

Keep going, man.

I will.

Important.

Thank you. You've all— you've been actually one of the first— one of the first people who openly, like, supported me. I remember seeing your tweets, like you said something about like, this kid has it essentially. And then someone's like, someone's like, what makes you think that? And you literally said, Just wait and see.

I was right, wasn't I?

You were. God bless that.

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