Gen X grew up on the iconic show Family Ties. Actress Justine Bateman played the slightly ditzy but surprisingly deep sister Mallory opposite Michael J. Fox’s briefcase-carrying tie-wearing Republican brother Alex.
While Bateman’s acting career has continued over the years, she has also expanded her creative repertoire to include directing, producing, and writing.
On Friday, a justifiably angry Bateman joined Jesse Watters and unloaded on California’s useless leaders and their abject failure to protect their citizens.
Justine Bateman: I’m pretty pissed, and I think a lot of people in Los Angeles are pissed. If you are going to run a city or run a state, you have to take care of the basics, and that’s make sure that your fire and your police department are well-funded.
Make sure that you have, not only you have plans if there are emergencies in your area, you’ve rehearsed them, but also you have plans to mitigate the problems that you know are going to happen in that area and or us, it’s fire, earthquakes, rain, and consequent mudslides.
If you’re not doing everything you can to take care of those problems, if they arise, then get out. You are useless to us.
All those other things, all the other programs like Head Start and all of that that’s great for the community, that’s after. If you can’t cover the basics, get out of our city. You are useless to us. You are a liability, and you have destroyed people’s lives because you didn’t do you didn’t do your job.
You didn’t do what you were hired for. You didn’t do what we pay you for. You should resign out of shame and responsibility for the people whose lives you’ve destroyed right now.
Jesse Watters: They won’t resign at all. They don’t have the dignity or the honor to do that. Why do you think that they don’t do the basics? Do they just not do their job? Are they distracted with other things? Are they incompetent? What do you think it is?
Justine Bateman: I think when you’re this incompetent, you don’t understand you’re incompetent.
Jesse Watters: Yeah, that’s so good. It’s true. Usually, other people do things for you. You’ve gotten to this position, you fly to Africa, or you have your aviators on and you look good on camera, and you just can’t execute, and you think this just always happens in California. Is this what people think? Fires happen, mudslides happen. It’s always like this?
Justine Bateman: No. Now, look, we had incredibly unusual winds. If you know that’s coming, you make sure that you are prepared for what might occur. And they weren’t. Yes, it was an extraordinary circumstance. But here’s what I really hope all voters do. Stop looking for the R and the D next to these names. Just stop it. You need to look at the person.
Do you think this person can do the job? Because unfortunately, in California, we have been looking at Ds, and we have voted in people who are not competent to handle these things.
We’re going to have the Olympics in here? How? How are we going to have the Olympics in Los Angeles? You know what? If people want something to pray for, here’s what you pray for.
Pray that we don’t have an earthquake in Los Angeles while these two people, Newsom and Bass, are in charge. Pray that we don’t have an earthquake because they will not be able to handle that.
Jesse Watters: I mean, there’s no evacuation plan that is very clear. Is this fire and the inability to mitigate it or even put it out, is this going to change how people vote?
Justine Bateman: It might. Like I said, look, if somebody’s competent and they’ve shown their competence and they have a D next to their name, fine, vote for them.
If they have an R next to their, who cares? Like, vote for them. Vote for somebody you think can do this job. I mean, are you checking whether or not there’s an R and a D next to the name of the plumber you’re going to hire or your housekeeper or somebody to fix your car? No.
You’re looking at their ratings. You’re asking other people who have had experience with them. Do they do a good job? Please do that with the politicians, please. Or you see the results of it.
WATCH:
Filmmaker and author @JustineBateman has a message for the leaders of California: If you can’t cover the basics, get out. You are useless to us, you are a liability and you have destroyed people’s lives, because you didn’t do your job. You should resign out of shame. pic.twitter.com/Tb1Pu3ahg1
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) January 10, 2025
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