Gavin Newsom stands up to President Trump
Neither Newsom, nor Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, nor Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell was consulted by the White House about federalizing the Guard, who arrived after protesters gathered in opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement's workplace raids in and around the city.
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Newsom spent days jousting with Trump. When the president said it would be 'great' if border czar Tom Homan had Newsom
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'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,' Newsom said. 'Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.'
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Neither did Newsom.
'I ask everyone: Take time, reflect on this perilous moment,' he said. 'A president who wants to be bound by no law or constitution, perpetuating a unified assault on American traditions.' Newsom ticked off the harms Trump has inflicted in his second term, from threatening to defund media organizations to waging 'a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself.'
'The rule of law,'
After encouraging Americans 'to stand up and be held to account,' Newsom said, " I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear. But I want you to know that you are the antidote to that fear and that anxiety. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him.'
Like Trump, Newsom understands optics and how to seize a moment. But this time, the personal and political stakes are much greater. Newsom is now the face and voice of the Democrats' anti-Trump fury.
In addition to Rob Bonta, the California attorney general
When
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On Thursday's edition of The New York Times podcast '
He also defended his conversations with far-right extremists, saying that Democrats can learn from how they mobilized Trump's support. (Incessant lies, racism, and anti-trans hate aren't, though, a path his party can take to consolidate its base and reclaim power.)
But Newsom, who never met a camera or microphone he didn't like, clearly wants to be the Democrats' point man in challenging Trump. Much the way the president's
'I'm going to continue to push back, and I'm going to stay on the offense, Newsom said on 'The Daily.'
For a time, the governor's voice was no longer one that some Democrats wanted. But so long as Trump's venomous policies continue to roil this nation, Newsom's, for now, has become the voice America needs to hear.
Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
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