Meanwhile, the governors nominee for California Attorney general, Javier Becerra, faced his first confirmation hearing. Well also examine what we heard during president elect dumps first News Conference and how it might affect california. Marisa la go sat down with senior political reporter david ciders. Thanks for joining us. Great to be here. So president elect donald trump hosted his First Press Conference this week in more than six months. He covered a lot of ground, but there is one thing that caught my eye as a californian. When he talked a little bit about maybe being willing to play favorites moving forward. Lets take a look at what he said. That was a beautiful scene on november 8th as those states started to pour in and we focused very hard on those states. And they really reciprocated. And those states are going to have a lot of jobs, and theyre going to have a lot of security. Theyre going to have a lot of good news for their veterans. So if the president elect is serious about what hes saying, what do you think this is going to mean for california . I think it depends on where youre sitting. People who have been opposed to trump all along, i think, think that california is in for a real fight. You think about people who advocate for undocumented immigrants, for example, for health care. On the other hand, i was at a chamber function just the other day, talking to business people. And i think the almost unanimous feeling there is we dont know. Some things, maybe theres tax regulations that help their situation. On the other hand, some things could be disastrous. I mean we obviously know that Obamacare Repeal could punch a huge hole in the state budget. But, yeah, i just wonder if, you know, on the trade issues, on things like that, being a border state, it could be a little different than just looking at, say, health care and sanctuary city and immigration, right . Well, i i think youre right. The former mayor of San Francisco thinks we should use Environmental Quality act to block the wall. That certainly would be particular to california. Whatever version of that is in texas is not as strong as californias. Returning to sacramento where obviously any of these changes would be felt, governor jerry brown unveiled a budget this week. And i would say he was vintage brown in unveiling this. Lets take a look at the governor making his case for keeping spending down. I dont think it makes any sense or even very decent to pretend weve got money when we dont because having it means having it over a whole budget cycle. And to spend and then cut and then have the whole all those problems that we saw under gray davis and under arnold schwarzenegger, i dont want to repeat that. He took little swipes there at his predecessors. What did you make of the press conference in general and the budget . Weve heard this from the governor before. Hes gone through the litany of previous governors who have left deficits for his successors and i think the governor doesnt want to be that. This an interesting way he frames the whole debate. He says this is a choice of a fixed amount of dollars. If youre a social Services Advocate or an advocate for the low income people, you say thats the wrong frame and that actually we have more money in improving the lives of people at the bottom, spending some now lifts all boats, right . Well see. I think its interesting. There was a couple things he kind of called out that he wants to either eliminate or sort of cap spending on that seem like they could really pose big fights with the legislature. One of this is this middle class scholarship act for Funding College for middle class students. The other one is housing. He basically took off the table 400 million funds that he had kind of dangled out there last year if they were willing to make some regulatory changes. Do you think those are going to be the big points of, you know, disagreement, or is it going to be over just how much money is there to fight over . Well, the revenue estimates, i think, are always an important thing. But keep in mind this is january. So hes not going to give the drea democratic lawmakers everything they want in the january proposal. He has things he wants between now and june and i think hes willing to spend if he gets some of those things done. Probably the biggest push out of this budget from him, the newest thing was the acknowledgement that extending cap in trade beyond 2020 would require a twothirds vote in the legislature, and really now asking the legislature to do it. I think its highly uncertain what he does. I mean it will be an interesting fight between environmentalists who have been happy with his Climate Change policy and obviously the sort of more mad rat democrats who have been a little more willing to stand up with oil, who did open the door to cap in trade this week. Theres another thing that was happening around the capitol this week i want to get to. Jerry browns nomination for attorney general, Javier Becerra was in town, i think two days. Tell me what we saw and what just happened on friday. We saw, i think, another episode in this ongoing, at least since trumps election, every opportunity California Democrats get to position themselves as the counterweight and the confirmation hearing with Javier Becerra, it was a cakewalk, and it was meant to be a show of force, i think, around him. And we saw the assembly ultimately today confirm. So immigration is obviously a huge concern. You know, i think we heard becerra pretty forcefully say anything within our power were going to do. But, you know, he also opened the door to the fact that there are things that california just cant do. I mean do you think, like, is his role going to be more of a figurehead in talking about immigration, or do you think were going to see some Court Battles if hes, you know, confirmed, which i think is going to happen pretty easily. Just judging from the model of attorney generals past, they tend to be people who actually are filing litigation and our involved. If he really is the model, say, on the former Texas Attorney general citing the obama administration, which i think might be, then we probably would see that. On the other hand, theres only so much space to have this fight, and hes competing with some other very big personalities, the gubernatorial candidates, the mayors of big cities. So im not sure where he falls in that whole spectrum. You covering sacramento and big city, maybe up have a better feeling about what that might look like. You know, hes from l. A. Too. So l. A. Politics are a different animal than San Francisco politics. Before we end, i want to turn back to National Politics actually. Our president elect will be taking the oath of office in just a week, and i wanted to get you to weigh in on a particularly nasty exchange we saw between donald trump and a reporter at a press conference this week. Lets look at that. As you know, theyre under audit. But every president since the 70s oh, gee, ive never heard that. Ive never heard that. You know, the only one that cares about my tax returns are the reporters, okay . Theyre the only ones. You think the American Public i dont think so. I won. I mean i became president. So he did win, but im wondering if you think this is an issue that the public still cares about. And just given the like sort of, you know, adversarial tone there, what does this mean moving forward for reporters and the public in general . The Political Consultants i talk to say the public wants to see tax returns. But then they look at a vote like they did in november, so they may want to see tax returns, but it may not be their deciding issue. Weve seen that before too. The current governor, jerry brown, did not release his tax returns in the 2010 campaign, breaking from years of tradition. He still has sky high approval ratings. So i think its unclear. But he was never that adversarial with the press, would you say . Well, maybe not as adversarial as the president elect but, yeah, hes had some runins. But not like the president elect. Thats on a different scale. And how the press interacts with the president , i think, is really interesting to watch in the coming months. I think it was also interesting to see the whole thing with, you know, the cnn reporter and whether questions even get answered. Well have a lot more to discuss. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Next weeks inauguration ceremony for donald trump will include blessings from six religious leaders, including a rabbi from los angeles. Rabbi marvin hyer is founder and dean of the simon weezen thaul center in l. A. Their mission is to confront antisemitism, and he founded the museum of tolerance, dedicated to education about the holocaust. His participation in the inauguration has prompted anger among Many American jews who object to trumps comments about minorities. Kqeds Senior Editor of politics spoke with rabbi hyer earlier today. Welcome to newsroom. Thank you. Let me begin by asking you about your decision to participate in fridays inauguration. Its generated some controversy in the jewish community, which voted overwhelmingly for hillary clinton. Tell us about your decision. Why did you decide you were going to say a prayer in the inauguration friday . Well, first i must be very honest and frank. It didnt take me very long to say that i would participate. Its an honor. My parents were immigrants that came to the United States in the 1920s to escape antisemitism. The United States is the freest and greatest democracy in the world. When the Inauguration Committee asked me to give a prayer for the 45th president of the United States, i considered it to be an honor and a duty to say yes. Yeah, and what are you going to say, and how do you think your par tis pags will matter . Im going to say a prayer. I know im going to speak as a representative of the jewish community. The prayers will come from jewish sources, from biblical sources of course. I hope it will have a 21st century ring to it. For me, look, i know that i should point out that its not even though ive never participated at an inauguration, ive had the privilege of giving invocations to four president s of the United States ronald reagan, george h. Bush, george w. Bush, William Jefferson clinton. If it would have been a democratic president and theyd asked me, the answer would be the same. Ive seen you said youre hoping that we should all americans should all pray for the success of this new president. Im wondering, you know, you mentioned you come from a family of immigrants. Of course theres been some controversial comments that president elect trump has made about immigrants as well as muslims. Do you feel like youre endorsing those things in participating, or might you even in some subtle way condemn those things and ask for more tolerance . Not at all. I dont think i would lose my voice for attending the inauguration. Ive spoken out before. Im a critic i was a critic of the idea of deporting 12 million latinos and mexicans from this country. Ive spoken out against every president , against barack obama when i thought he was wrong, ronald reagan, george h. Bush, george w. Bush. And i dont think that i would change. In other words, the fact that im invited to an inauguration of a president , if i believe the president is wrong in the future, i will i will be amongst those who speak up. The goal of the museum, the simon weezen thaul center, the museum of tolerance, of course, is to teach about the holocaust, to root out antisemitism, call out antisemitism. Im wondering what your thoughts are about trumps comments this week comparing the u. S. Intelligence agency and the release of information about him to nazi germany, the kind of smear that would have happened in nazi germany. What are your thoughts about that kind of rhetoric . I wouldnt have used that kind of rhetoric, but i would say this. I dont really believe that donald trump thinks that the United States or the press in the United States equals what took place in germany from 1943 and 1944. If i were the president s adviser and he said to me, do you think i should use such language, my answer would be absolutely not. Does it disturb you that he does use that kind of language and that he calls for a ban on muslims . Hes kind of walked that back a bit, but i mean are these things and other things that he has said even consistent with the tenets of judaism . First of all, its not im against any registry of any ethnic group. Let me be very clear of my position. Im not embarrassed to tell you what my position is. Im against any ban on muslims, on any other ethnic group or religion. I am absolutely in favor of a registry on behalf of jihadists. If the u. S. Intelligence services and Intelligence Services around the world want to keep tabs on jihadists, i think that is a great idea. Are you concerned about a slippery slope kind of situation where, you know, you could some might compare what happened with youvjews in the 1930s. Not really. Listen, you add people that supported in europe during the war. You had those that were national socialists. And you had those that were not national socialists. If a person declares i am a jihadist, i want to end western civilization, he belongs on a registry. If he is not a jihadist, we should absolutely not discriminate. Let me ask you about one of the most controversial members of his inner circle donald trump. That is steve bannon, former head of breitbart news. He has been associated with the altright movement, including some whi im not saying he endorses those groups or their philosophy. But does it concern you with that association of organizations is that close to the president . First let me say i know very well and respect alan dershowitz. I knew him for many years. Alan dershowitz is a democrat. He has stated emphatically that steve bannon is not an antisemite. Alan dershowitz is not a stranger to what constitutes an antisemite. I take his word for it. But does it concern you at all given the association of this im concerned about the altright, and im concerned about the altleft that we hear nothing about. Theres almost dead silence when it comes to the extreme left. Yeah. Let me ask you about the president elects choice of ambassador, david friedman, ambassador to israel. Hes called president obama a blatant antisemite. He supports settlements. He supports hes a compared liberal American Jews with nazi collaborators. Are you concerned at all about that kind of rhetoric . I mean i guess what im really getting at with many of these questions, rabbi, is where is the healing . Where is the reconciliation . First of all, let me say i dont those the ambassadordesigna ambassadordesignate. I know that hes a committed jew. I judge him on what hes going to do. You made a statement regarding settlements. I have a point of view on that. One of the biggest phony things that has ever occurred is the peddling by american politicians that settlements are the only obstacle or the main obstacle to a middle east solution. Anyone with any knowledge of the middle east should be wondering about this question. Why is it that weve discussed settlements for maybe 15 years on a regular basis at the u. N. , secretary of states, president s have mentioned it. But since hamas, a terrorist organization has taken over gaza, no u. S. Official or member of the Security Council has had the guts to go before the Security Council and say the following. I want to meet on the objective of how we dislodge hamas from gaza, a terrorist organization committed to the total destruction of the state of israel. Im afraid were almost at the end. Very quickly if you could tell donald trump and perhaps you can, one thing, what would it be . Unify the country. We cant you know, weve had our great differences. The political season is over. The right thing to do is for every american to pray that donald trump turns into a great president. That would be the patriotic thing to do. All right. Rabbi marvin hyer, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. The mavericks big wave surfing contest is about to get a big change. For the first time ever, there will be a womens only heat. Six women competing for a 30,000 prize. The move comes after a steady campaign by top women surfers to gain access to the prestigious competition. One of the most vocal advocates is San Francisco surfer bianca valenti. She joins me now in the studio. Nice to have you here. Thanks for having me. What went through your mind when they announced that this year the mavericks contest will be open to women . Im just absolutely excited and inspired and just think its a huge step forward for the future. Youve been outspoken for a number of years, pushing for more women opportunities in competitive surfing. What does this moment mean for you personally . Yeah, its breaking the glass ceiling, and its not just it is a personal glass ceiling, but its also just a huge step forward in the big picture of equality and opportunity for women, you know, in sports and as a whole. And how will the competition work this year . Women will be in a separate heat from the men . Is that right . Yeah, so well have a onehour heat, and there are six women in the heat. So in that time period, you have to try to catch two waves. They get scored out of ten points. Your best ride gets doubled in score. So risk is rewarded. They want you to go big. Basically if you get a score in the excellent range, an eight or above, youre going to beat anybody who just goes for a safety ride in the mid range. So i want to hear more about your experience as a surfer as well. What does it feel like when youre out there on a surfboard . So i always like to think of it as a conscious meditation because everything stands still the moment you catch a wave. Leading up to it, its exciting. Its