‘They've accepted Trump is crazy’: KFI host John Kobylt on his listeners’ political views

How are voters in Southern California viewing next week’s election and the political climate overall?

John Kobylt co-hosts The John and Ken Show on KFI 640 AM. His listeners are in LA, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties. He says it’s hard to tell whether they vote mainly Republican because the ones he hears from are the most intense. “I always tell people, ‘Don’t go by the callers, don’t go by the people who comment on social media. That’s the less than 1%. Because I know a lot of normal people who listen.”

When it comes to Trump, Kobylt says most listeners’ views haven’t changed. “They've accepted Trump is crazy. But you look at his policies, what he's done, and it fits pretty well in the mainstream of a moderate Republican administration.”

He continues, “I think what's frustrating about him is instead of running on some of his legitimate accomplishments, he gets in these stupid fights with, I don't know, people on social media, or people on cable television or whatever. … So there's a dichotomy between people liking the philosophy and the policies … and then there's all this noise and mayhem that goes on in the outside, which does turn a lot of people off.”

He says most of his listeners are happy that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden will win California, but they’re unhappy with Governor Gavin Newsom for how he’s handled coronavirus and shut down businesses.

“It's not only they threw people out of work, but they threw people's kids out of school. And you try to get unemployment benefits from Sacramento, and there's a million and a half claims backed up. And then they release all those bizarre rules on how to hold Thanksgiving dinner,” Kobylt says. “Most people have had enough. And I don't think it's a political issue. I think it's just a practical, ‘please shut up and get out of my life’ feeling that most people have.”

— Written by Amy Ta, produced by Nihar Patel