The next phase of California's Resistance

Politico

6 hours ago

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NOT GOING ANYWHERE — Saturday's mass 'No Kings' protests are a wrap, but the points of tension animating California's reenergized resistance to the Trump administration are very much unresolved.
The administration continues daily immigration raids in the state, even if President Donald Trump has reportedly asked federal agents to lay off workers in some industries, including agriculture, amid intense industry lobbying.
Trump will be allowed to keep National Guard troops and Marines in Los Angeles until at least tomorrow, giving California Democrats more time to sound off on the unusual militarization of the nation's second-largest city before an appeals court considers the state's challenge to the deployment.
Sen. Alex Padilla and other Democrats continue to seize on the senator's handcuffing at a Department of Homeland Security news conference last week as representative of the administration's treatment of political opponents. Others have been fundraising off the incident, our Brakkton Booker and Andrew Howard report.
'All Alex was trying to do was ask a question and do his job of oversight,' read one email from the campaign of Sen. Adam Schiff, who asked supporters to split donations between his campaign and Padilla's.
But but but … Officials from both parties tried to temper partisan animosity upon learning that former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman was killed, in what Gov. Tim Walz described as a politically motivated attack.
As our Zach Montellaro reports, California's Democratic Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Republican Minority Leader James Gallagher issued a rare joint statement Saturday afternoon.
'This horrifying act of political violence has no place in America, and we stand together in condemning it in the strongest possible terms,' they wrote. 'Americans can disagree, but we must always do that without violence. As leaders on both sides of the aisle, we call on everyone to take down the temperature, respect differences of opinion and work toward peace in our society.'
They were followed by the leaders of the California state Senate, Democratic Senate President Pro Tempore Mike McGuire and Republican Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, who said 'no cause, no grievance, no election justifies the use of fear or force against our fellow human beings.'
Close to home … Officials are all too familiar with political violence in California, where Rep. Nancy Pelosi's husband was bludgeoned by a man who broke into his home in 2022 and former San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was assassinated decades earlier. Hortman's death, and the shooting of another Minnesota state lawmaker, prompted sitting officials to open up about what they face personally.
'We're all getting death threats pretty regularly, and violent threats,' California Rep. Jared Huffman said of his congressional colleagues. 'You go online and you just see all of the vile and hate and vitriol that is pulsing through mostly right wing politics and platforms, but there's some of it on the left too.'
Our colleagues reported that Huffman and other members of Congress are 'taking all kinds of precautions' to boost their safety that they never before would have thought necessary in the U.S. Federal campaign finance officials signed off last year on allowing members of Congress and candidates to use campaign cash for a wide array of personal security measures due to the threats they now routinely face.
Seas of protesters … The weekend's demonstrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego drew tens of thousands of attendees and remained largely peaceful. The events, planned in coordination with thousands of others nationwide, gained momentum after Trump unleashed a barrage of broadsides against California and its leaders while deploying the National Guard over Gov. Gavin Newsom's objections.
'We're at DEFCON 1 in the conflict between California and the Trump administration,' Democratic strategist Katie Merrill told our own Jeremy B. White for his latest on the administration's hyper-focus on California. 'It's orders of magnitude more than what we've seen, ever.'
Importantly for Democrats, the demonstrations didn't produce the kinds of chaotic images that the White House used as justification for intervening in Los Angeles-area immigration protests last week. Still, Los Angeles police forced demonstrators to disperse Saturday before an 8 p.m. curfew took effect downtown, the Los Angeles Times reported. The limited curfew, imposed last week to stem vandalism and looting, remains in effect indefinitely.
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WHERE'S GAVIN? Nothing official announced.
ON THE HILL
SUNDAY SHOWS — Padilla on Sunday denied that he was deliberately trying to make a scene at the Department of Homeland Security press conference, as White House and DHS officials have claimed.
'Nothing could be further from the truth. Again, what are the odds?' the Democrat told CNN's Dana Bash on Sunday on 'State of the Union.'
The senator said he asked the FBI agents escorting him around the building if he could listen in.
'When I heard the secretary, not for the first time in that press conference, talk about the needing to liberate the people of Los Angeles from their duly elected mayor and governor, it was at that moment that I chose to try to ask a question,' Padilla said.
Read more from his cable news appearance from our Gregory Svirnovskiy.
REPUBLICANLAND
ESSAYLI'S ASCENT — Former California Assemblymember Bill Essayli has been on something of a revenge tour since Trump appointed him to be U.S. attorney for California's central district, our Will McCarthy reports.
Already, he has charged SEIU leader David Huerta with felony conspiracy for allegedly impeding an ICE arrest by participating in a protest. And he has been Trump's man on the immigration battlefield of Los Angeles — a rapid status shift for a politician who not long ago was a junior, little-liked Republican state lawmaker.
'The Democrats that bullied Bill Essayli should be very worried,' said Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican who worked to get Essayli elected before serving alongside him. 'They've never been held accountable. But life changes.'
CLIMATE AND ENERGY
FROM PAIN TO POLITICS — There's a new climate advocacy group in town trying to make disasters personal — and taking lessons from the anti-gun violence movement. Read California Climate's interview with Chris Kocher, an Everytown alum who now co-leads Extreme Weather Survivors to connect disaster victims and advocate with them in Sacramento and beyond.
Top Talkers
RULES IN REVERSE — Trump just revoked California's authority to set its own electric vehicle rules. In her latest column, California climate editor Debra Kahn questions the degree to which California is to blame.
CHANGE OF GUARD — Marines replaced National Guard troops in protecting a federal building in Los Angeles amid the legal back-and-forth over the Guard's deployment, the New York Times reports. One man was briefly detained by the troops after he ducked caution tape to reach the Veterans Affairs office there.
AROUND THE STATE
— California legislators passed their budget proposal on Friday. They'll vote on a final budget after leadership finishes negotiations with Newsom. (POLITICO Pro)
— SF Mayor Daniel Lurie is facing backlash for proposing cuts to immigration services funding to address the city's budget deficit. (SF Standard)
— Personal information about immigrants who receive health insurance through Medi-Cal has been handed over to federal immigration officials. (POLITICO Pro)
PLAYBOOKERS
BIRTHDAYS — POLITICO's Nicole Norman (favorite cocktail: martini with two blue cheese olives) … Hailey Heer … Alison Gopnik … Alissa Anderson, policy director at the California Budget & Policy Center ...
BELATED B-DAY WISHES — (was Sunday): Former House Majority Whip Tony Coelho … Rebecca Rutkoff … Liz Bourgeois … Daniel Lacesa … Jeffrey I. Abrams … (was Saturday): Lilly Rapson … Beryl A. Geber … Annie Olson … YouTube's Alexandra Veitch … Campbell Brown … President Donald Trump … Los Angeles City Councilmember Timmy McOsker (favorite birthday treat: crab cake and a crispy Corona with lime)
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