NEW: Gavin Newsom blames Trump for civil unrest in California, claims ‘democracy is under assault’
“Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom doubled down on his blame of President Donald Trump for the escalation of violence that has ensued in Los Angeles and claimed that his actions of sending the National Guard to keep the peace were marks of the president conducting an “assault” on “democracy.”
Newsom gave a live address on Tuesday evening in appeal to California as well as other Americans that Trump actions mean that “democracy is under assault.” Although he got to the point, his speech started with no audio.
Newsom claimed, “What’s happening right now is very different than anything we’ve seen before. On Saturday morning, when federal agents jumped out of an unmarked van near a Home Depot parking lot, they began grabbing people a deliberate targeting of a heavily Latino suburb.”
Reports of an ICE raid taking place near a Home Depot were false, and the agents were targeted near the store when setting up a staging area at a nearby DHS office on Friday, and ICE agents were targeted by agitators at the time.
Newsom went onto talk about the various foreign nationals living in the US illegally that ICE took into custody, and then said that LA residents took to the streets to “exercise their constitutional right to free speech and assembly to protest their government’s actions.”
On the ground, violence ensued, as cars were lit on fire and a federal agent was assautled, in what Newsom called “some exceptions” to the local police trying to keep the peace. He then added, “Donald Trump without consulting, California, law enforcement leaders commandeered 2,000 of our state’s National Guard members to deploy on our streets, illegally and for no reason.”
Newsom called it a “brazen abuse of power” and that the “downward spiral” of violence only began after Trump sent the National Guard into LA, which the president did on Saturday evening. He went onto say that Trump “chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety.”
Newsom later added, echoing a talking point made by many Democrat politicians about Trump being a “threat to democracy“: “This isn’t just about protests here in Los Angeles, when Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault.”