California Gov. Gavin Newsom, reaching to become the face of Democratic opposition to President Trump, declared “democracy is under assault” in an address Tuesday night, and demanding that the president cancel the thousands of troops he’s placed on the streets of Los Angeles.
Mr. Newsom, while decrying “several dozen lawbreakers” who turned anti-ICE protests violent, said blame for that — and for the later escalations — belongs to Mr. Trump.
He mocked Mr. Trump’s push demand to deport illegal immigrants, saying it’s targeted “dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses.”
“That’s just weakness. Weakness masquerading as strength,” the Democratic governor said.
In increasingly extravagant terms, the governor castigated Mr. Trump for the events of the attack on the Capitol on Jan . 6, 2021, saying the president is “not opposed to lawlessness and violence, as long as it serves him.”
And he cast his defiance of Mr. Trump as a stand for civil rights.
“If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are safe,” Mr. Newsom said. “Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.”
The remarks came after four days of unrest at spots around Los Angeles, with protesters initially angry over a relatively small-scale immigration enforcement operation.
Those spiraled into a broad challenge to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Mr. Trump’s broader immigration crackdown, which spurred him to deploy federalized National Guard troops. That in turn sparked more unrest, and Mr. Trump responded with still more troop call-ups.
Mr. Trump has celebrated his own decision to deploy troops as preventing much wider violence and suggested Mr. Newsom should be arrested for allowing things to get out of control.
“He’s doing a bad job, causing a lot of death, a lot of potential death,” the president said Tuesday.
Mr. Newsom has filed a lawsuit asking a judge to declare Mr. Trump’s troop deployment illegal. The judge has delayed a ruling until at least Thursday.
The governor said Tuesday evening that more than 370 people have been arrested during the protests and he said local authorities are scouring video to build cases against others.
He said officers had things under control until Mr. Trump “chose theatrics over public safety” in deploying the first round of Guard troops.
“We honor their service. We honor their bravery. But we do not want our streets militarized by our own armed forces. Not in L.A. Not in California. Not anywhere,” he said.
