Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday evening accused President Trump of deliberately fanning the flames of the Los Angeles protests and “pulling a navy dragnet throughout” town endangering peaceable protesters and concentrating on hardworking immigrant households.
The Democratic governor’s feedback have been a forceful rebuke to the president’s claims that deploying the California Nationwide Guard and U.S. Marines to town was essential to regulate the civil unrest.
“Donald Trump’s authorities isn’t defending our communities — they’re traumatizing our communities,” Newsom mentioned. “And that appears to be your complete level.”
The governor posted his video tackle to California on social media hours after Trump mentioned at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina that he despatched in troops to guard immigration brokers from “the assaults of a vicious and violent mob.”
The image Trump painted of the federal authorities’s function within the protests in opposition to immigration raids marks a pointy distinction to Newsom’s assertion that state and native legislation enforcement have been efficiently holding the peace earlier than federal authorities deployed “tear fuel,” “flash-bang grenades” and “rubber bullets” on Angelenos exercising their constitutional proper to free speech and meeting.
Then Trump “illegally” referred to as up the California Nationwide Guard, Newsom mentioned.
“This brazen abuse of energy by a sitting president infected a flamable scenario, placing our individuals, our officers, and even our Nationwide Guard in danger,” Newsom mentioned. “That’s when the downward spiral started. He doubled down on his harmful Nationwide Guard deployment by fanning the flames even more durable. And the president, he did it on objective.”
The governor, who has turn out to be a goal for Republicans and a central determine within the political and authorized battle over the protests, has mentioned for days that an “unhinged” Trump deployed troops to deliberately incite violence and chaos, in search of to divert consideration away from his actions in Washington and assert his “dictatorial tendencies.”
Newsom and state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed a request for a restraining order earlier Tuesday asking a federal choose to name off the “Division of Protection’s unlawful militarization of Los Angeles and the takeover of a California Nationwide Guard unit.” The request got here the day after California filed a lawsuit in opposition to the Trump administration alleging that the deployment of the guard with out the governor’s consent violated the U.S. Structure.
After returning to Washington, Trump commented on the “good relationship” he’s at all times had with Newsom, earlier than blaming the governor for the unrest.
“This could by no means have been allowed to begin, and if we didn’t become involved, Los Angeles could be burning down proper now,” Trump mentioned, after which made a reference to the lethal wildfires within the Los Angeles space in January. “Simply as the homes burned down.”
He mentioned the navy is within the metropolis to de-escalate the scenario and management what he described as paid “insurrectionists,” “agitators” and “troublemakers.”
“We now have lots of people all around the world watching Los Angeles,” Trump mentioned. “We’ve received the Olympics, so we now have this man permitting this to occur.”
On Monday, Trump mentioned his high border coverage advisor Tom Homan ought to comply with via on threats to arrest the governor. Newsom instantly jumped on the remark, evaluating the federal administration to an “authoritarian regime.”
“I by no means thought I’d hear these phrases. Truthfully, Democrat, Republican. By no means thought I’d hear these in my lifetime — to threaten a political opponent who occurs to be sitting governor,” Newsom mentioned.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declined to reply a query about whether or not Newsom must be arrested on Tuesday and as an alternative mentioned the governor must be “tarred and feathered.”
Newsom took a shot at Johnson throughout his tackle, saying the speaker has “utterly abdicated” his duty for Congress to function a examine on the White Home. He warned that “different states are subsequent.”
“At this second, all of us want to face up and be held to account, the next stage of accountability,” Newsom mentioned, imploring protesters to train free-speech rights peacefully. “I do know a lot of you’re feeling deep anxiousness, stress and worry. However I would like you to know that you’re the antidote to that worry and anxiousness.
“What Donald Trump desires most is your fealty. Your silence. To be complicit on this second. Don’t give in to him.”
Instances workers author Laura Nelson and Washington bureau chief Michael Wilner contributed to this report.
