The Issue Is: Governor Gavin Newsom, Dave Rubin, Gloria Allred, Paxton Smith

LOS ANGELES - This week on "The Issue Is," Elex Michaelson is joined by a line-up you won’t see anywhere else on TV.

First, fresh off surviving his recall election, Governor Newsom sits down for an exclusive one-on-one to talk lessons from the campaign, civility in politics, and his new children’s book inspired by his own experiences with dyslexia.

Then, legendary attorney Gloria Allred returns to the studio alongside Paxton Smith, who made headlines this summer for speaking about abortion during her valedictory address, to talk the ongoing battle over reproductive rights.

Next, Dave Rubin, the author and "Rubin Report" host, joins Elex to discuss his support of Larry Elder during the recall and where California goes next.

Finally, on a week in which Governor Newsom announced that vaccinations will be required for eligible K-12 students to attend public and private schools once the FDA approves the jab, Rubin and Allred face off for the first time, in a heated debate over vaccine mandates.

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THE ISSUE IS: GOV. NEWSOM ON LESSONS LEARNED DURING THE RECALL

NEWSOM’S CENTRAL TAKE: "At least for me, it was a dark cloud for over a year with people, with protest signs, and recall signs, and petitions out there in front of your house everywhere you go… So there's a stress associated with that, but there wasn't a distraction associated with that, and I want folks to know that. We kept our eye on the ball, and I think as a consequence, we did well on Election Day, because people saw we actually were moving the needle on the things that matter to them housing, homelessness, education, climate change, addressing these great challenges, that are all preexisting challenges to not just the recall, but even me getting elected two and a half years ago, so my big takeaway is there's a deeper sense of urgency today than I've ever experienced in my lifetime that people really are frustrated and angry about Washington, D.C., about City Hall, about the state Capitol, about elected officials across the spectrum, around institutions, and not just governmental institutions... People are demanding real results, and if you don't show them, you can't just assert it, you've got to prove it, then we're all going to be subject to subsequent recalls in the future…"

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THE ISSUE IS: NEWSOM ON HIS NEW CHILDREN’S BOOK

NEWSOM’S CENTRAL TAKE: "I have a difficult time, even to this day, reading... I have pretty severe dyslexia, and it really marked a relationship with me with having to find ways to overcompensate and deal with the deep issues and stresses of self-esteem, because you don't have much when kids are laughing at other kids because they can't read. I go through speech therapy for years... So I did a little kids book talking about, well, a young child proxy, I guess me, that not only had a relationship to dyslexia, but to sports because I literally would not for baseball, not for basketball, I wouldn't have had self-esteem and I could have been a very different place... So how sports created a sense of confidence that I was able to translate, ultimately try to overcome the dyslexia... So it's a little children's book, a picture book, they're not many out there for dyslexic kids, in fact, couldn't find one, and I've two kids with learning differences myself…"

RELATED: Governor Newsom writes children’s book about boy with dyslexia

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THE ISSUE IS: ALLRED ON THE TEXAS ABORTION LAW

ALLRED’S CENTRAL TAKE: "We have to fight back...In Texas, for example, SB8, which became law, does ban abortion after six weeks, and worse than that, there are no exceptions for rape, or incest, or sexual abuse. In addition to that, it allows for what the Justice Department has called 'vigilantes,' private citizens, to sue anyone who aids and abets anyone getting an abortion and to recover $10,000 if they're successful, plus their attorney's fees. This is absolutely outrageous... We're just hanging on hoping that the federal court judge will issue an injunction, that's a court order, stopping the enforcement of this very dangerous law that has been passed in Texas - it's going to cause poor women, young women, rural women and women of color to perhaps do back alley abortions, to have to go to another state to try to get an abortion. It has very dangerous ramifications, so it's not an academic issue, it's a life and death issue…"

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THE ISSUE IS: RUBIN ON THE RECALL OUTCOME AND HIS SUPPORT OF LARRY ELDER

RUBIN’S CENTRAL TAKE: "Obviously I was disappointed in what happened with the recall, there's no doubt about it. Larry Elder is a very, very decent man, born and bred here in California, son of a janitor, he has been fighting for what, I think, are mostly the right issues for a long, long time. He was treated horribly and unfairly by most of the media - Big Tech fueled it by putting up a hit piece after hit piece about him. And I think unfortunately, you know, we have a situation in California where an awful lot of people seem to just want more government in their lives to just have bureaucrats tell them what to do and take their money and do whatever they want with it, without a lot of results, which is why we have tremendous amount of homelessness, and drug use, and prices of houses are sky high, and the roads aren't that great, and everything else. So I'm very disappointed in what happened, and I hope that Larry's future here is still bright, one way or another…"

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THE ISSUE IS: THE DEBATE OVER VACCINE MANDATES

RUBIN: "The idea that a year-and-a-half after two weeks to flatten the curve, a phrase that we don't talk about anymore, did we ever flatten the curve? Why don't we talk about that curve anymore? The idea that now it's about some sort of magical - as Joe Biden said, which is what Gavin Newsom's alluding to - it's about some sort of 97 or 98% government-mandated vaccine? And then for kids, you know, kids have a .002% chance of dying from COVID, that is CDC numbers as of March. Everyone else is getting vaccinated in essence - so the teachers are vaccinated, the administrators are vaccinated, we know kids aren't sharing it with each other... This is just constant government overreach."

ALLRED: "It's really not about rights. It's about life and death. And, of course, kids can also be carriers of COVID. And in addition to that, I think it's really important to understand this is not a political issue - it shouldn't be - it should be a scientific and a health issue… do you think there should not be a mandate for kids in schools to have to get vaccine, for chickenpox, for mumps, for polio, for so many other vaccines that they are required to have in order to go to school?"

RUBIN: "I'm not saying people should not get vaccinated. I'm saying it should be left up to choice. But you just said something very, very dangerous right there for a lawyer. ‘This is not about rights’? Since when is it not about rights in the United States? We have God given rights that are protected under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and if we're suddenly saying, 'Oh, this isn't about rights because there is some virus out there with basically a 99% recovery rate,' and I just gave you the CDC numbers for children. Yes, children could transmit the disease, although they rarely do, but the parents are all vaccinated if they're good, decent citizens."

ALLRED: "Are you a good, decent citizen or are you vaccinated?"

RUBIN: "It's nobody's business. Whether I'm vaccinated, that's like me asking you the last time you got laid. I mean, it's just irrelevant.... my medical history if none of your business, nor yours is mine."

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The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson is California's only statewide political show. For showtimes and more information, go to TheIssueIsShow.com.