‘War on the rule of law': Nicolle Wallace on the intentional chaos unleashed by Trump in Los Angeles
Jacob Soboroff, NBC News Correspondent joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House live from Los Angeles, California outside of the parking lot of Home Depot where ICE conducted yet another immigration raid, as protests continue to grow on the streets of the city, with President Trump threatening to continue to escalate the presence of national guard troops.
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Five takeaways from New Jersey's primaries for governor: How the candidates are handling Trump and more
The matchup in New Jersey's race for governor is officially set — and Tuesday's primaries also laid down big indicators about the state of both political parties after the first major intraparty contests since the 2024 election. Republican Jack Ciattarelli, a former state legislator, easily won his party's primary with President Donald Trump's endorsement, underscoring Trump's significant sway over the GOP electorate. U.S. Rep. Mikie Sherrill won the crowded Democratic primary, pitching herself as the candidate with the best shot at holding on to the governorship and steering past ideological and antiestablishment sentiment simmering in her party. She defeated candidates who were to her left and to her right. The race to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, one of two governor's races this year, is expected to be competitive. Trump lost the state by 6 percentage points in November, a 10-point swing in his direction compared with his 2020 margin. Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's primaries: Sherrill won as many Democratic voters were weighing which candidate would be most electable and as each Democratic candidate pitched a different path forward for the party. Sherrill's victory suggests some Democratic voters want to dust off the party's successful playbook from the 2018 midterm elections, when she flipped a longtime Republican-held House seat. In that campaign and in her primary run this year, Sherrill stressed her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a former federal prosecutor and pitched 'ruthless competence' as a counter to Trump. 'It just seems so obvious to me what the path forward is. It's effectively govern,' Sherrill recently told NBC News. 'And this is what I've been doing since 2018 when I first ran, right? ... I say to people, 'What's keeping you up at night?'' 'I tell people it's not maybe the sexiest tagline, but ruthless competence is what people in New Jersey want to see in government,' Sherrill added later. 'And that's what I've always provided, and that's what I think stands in stark contrast to the most incompetent federal government we've probably ever seen in this nation.' Still, while Sherrill won with over a third of the vote, the results revealed a fractured party. Two candidates who pitched themselves as more progressive, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, won a combined 36% of the vote. Two of the more moderate candidates, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, got 20% combined, while teachers union president Sean Spiller won 10%. After having come just 3 percentage points shy of defeating Murphy in 2021, Ciattarelli made one thing clear in his bid four years later: He's all in on Trump. Like many prominent Republicans, Ciattarelli wasn't always on board — he criticized Trump as a 'charlatan' in 2015. And while he embraced Trump during his previous bid for governor, he didn't campaign with him. That led Ciattarelli's opponents, including his top competitor, former radio host Bill Spadea, to try to frame him as insufficiently loyal to Trump. (Spadea had voiced criticism of Trump before he fell back in line.) But Trump's endorsement of Ciattarelli cemented his front-runner status, helping hasten the end of the campaign. And in a nod to Ciattarelli's past criticism, Trump tried to inoculate him from any attempt to undercut his Trump bona fides. 'Jack, who after getting to know and understand MAGA, has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!),' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing his backing. Tuesday's result suggests that Trump's seal of approval was good enough for most GOP primary voters. By late Tuesday evening, Ciattarelli was carrying all of the state's 21 counties. Ciattarelli's vote share was at 67% by late Tuesday evening, compared with just 22% for Spadea. State Sen. Jon Bramnick, who had been critical of Trump, had won just 6%, followed by two other candidates who had each won less than 3% of the vote. Ciattarelli thanked Trump in his victory speech for his 'endorsement and strong support,' making a joke about his being a 'part-time New Jersey resident.' (Trump owns a home and a golf course in Bedminster.) But Ciattarelli spent most of his speech focused on a general election argument, not on shoring up his base — indicative of the line he'll have to walk in a state Trump lost three times, even after the improvement he showed last year. Both parties are grappling with antiestablishment sentiment, wondering how to handle it, channel it or just avoid getting run over by it. But Tuesday's results were also a reminder that political institutions still have some staying power. New Jersey's traditional political machines were dealt a blow last year following a lawsuit from Democrat Andy Kim during his Senate run, when a court ordered that county parties could no longer give advantageous ballot positions to their preferred candidates. That diminished the sway those parties had Tuesday, but they still demonstrated some power. Ciattarelli was the only Republican who competed for county party endorsements. Fulop didn't compete for Democratic county party endorsements, and Gottheimer sat some out, as well. Some county parties split between the candidates, with Sherrill earning the most endorsements from 10 of the 21 counties. While Sherrill was carrying 15 of the state's 21 counties late Tuesday, Gottheimer was winning his home county, Bergen, which endorsed him. Sweeney, the only candidate from South Jersey, fared far better in the six counties that backed him. He was winning 40% of the vote in Gloucester County while garnering 7% of the statewide vote. The county party endorsements were no guarantee of victory: The Essex County Democrats, for example, endorsed Sherrill. But as of late Tuesday evening, she was trailing Baraka in Essex County, where he is mayor of Newark, the state's largest city. Even in that instance, though, the party endorsement may have helped Sherrill cut Baraka's margins in his home base. Tuesday night's victory speeches were also important table-setters, indicative of how each party is looking to frame the general election. And New Jersey's general election this year may foreshadow much of what we see on the campaign trail around the country in the 2026 midterms. Outside of a quick thanks to Trump, Ciattarelli kept his focus tightly on Sherrill and New Jersey Democrats in his victory speech. He criticized her as 'Phil Murphy 2.0,' arguing that she has 'enabled every extremist and costly idea Phil Murphy has put forth,' and he even revived a key criticism of Murphy from his 2021 campaign. He also criticized Sherrill's focus on Trump as a deflection. 'Mark my words: While we focus on these key New Jersey issues, my Democratic opponent will do everything in her power. Trust me ... if you took a shot every time Mikie Sherrill says 'Trump,' you'd be drunk off your ass every day between now and Nov. 4,' he said. 'But every time you hear her say 'Trump,' I want you to know what it really means: What it really means is Mikie doesn't have a plan to fix New Jersey,' he continued. During her victory speech, Sherrill leaned heavily on her biography but also emphasized a dual mandate — a fight against New Jersey Republicans and also against Trump, a recipe that Democrats have successfully leaned on in past midterm elections. Calling Ciattarelli a 'Trump lackey' who shouldn't lead the state, Sherrill criticized 'Trump and MAGA Republicans in D.C. [who] want to raise your taxes and take away your health care and education dollars.' 'This country is too beautiful to be beholden to the cruelty and self-interest that Jack and Trump are trying to hoist on her,' she said. 'The future is built on hard work and hope, and here in New Jersey, we're known for our grit, our tenacity — maybe a little bit for how loud we are — but it's going to take a strong voice to cut through the noise from Washington and deliver for the people,' she said. 'So I stand here tonight doing just that. And as a mom of four teenagers, you guys know I'm not going to put up with the incompetent, whiny nonsense coming from aggrieved MAGA Republicans.' Tuesday's results showed how money matters in campaigns — and how it has its limits. On the Democratic side, Sherrill won despite having been outspent by some of her opponents whose outside groups dropped millions of dollars on the race. The largest outside spender was Working New Jersey, a super PAC funded by the state's teachers union, which Spiller leads. The group had spent a whopping $35 million on the race as of May 27, according to the latest campaign finance reports, while Spiller's campaign had spent $342,000. As of late Tuesday, Spiller had about 10% of the primary vote. Gottheimer and Fulop were also boosted by outside groups that spent millions of dollars on the airwaves. (Gottheimer drained his congressional account to fund the outside group supporting him.) Sherrill got support on the airwaves from One Giant Leap PAC, which spent less than either Gottheimer's or Fulop's groups but spent most of its funds in the final weeks of the race. Ciattarelli and an aligned outside group, Kitchen Table Conservatives, outspent the other Republicans. And Ciattarelli touted his strong fundraising as proof that he would be a formidable general election candidate. This article was originally published on
23 minutes ago
Raids in Southern California rattle immigrant communities — including those in the US legally
LOS ANGELES -- Jacob Vasquez began working at a clothing warehouse in Los Angeles soon after arriving from Mexico less than three years ago. He is among dozens of workers detained by federal immigration authorities in a series of raids in LA's fashion district and at Home Depot parking lots in Southern California. More than 100 people have been detained. The raids have triggered days of turbulent protests across the city and beyond and led President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard troops and Marines to the LA area, the latest development in the administration's immigration crackdown. Protests in the city's downtown have ranged from peaceful to raucous, with demonstrators blocking a major freeway and setting cars on fire over the weekend. Immigrant advocates say the workers who were detained do not have criminal histories and are being denied their due process rights. Vasquez has a three-month-old baby, according to his family who spoke to reporters outside the Ambiance Apparel warehouse, a clothing company founded in 1999, and where the young father worked. 'Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,' said his brother Gabriel, speaking in Spanish during a news conference Monday. He doesn't know if he's OK, he later said in an interview. 'We don't know where he is.' Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass denounced the raids and the deployment of troops, saying Tuesday that the actions were aimed at intimidating the area's vast immigrant population, one of the country's largest. She said she has heard even immigrants with legal status are being swept up and that the raids may continue for months. An estimated 950,000 people in Los Angeles County do not have legal immigration status, according to the Migration Policy Institute. That is about a tenth of the county's population, and they include cooks, nannies, hotel employees, street vendors, gardeners, construction workers and garment workers. 'Families across the city are terrified," Bass said. 'They don't know if they should go to work, they don't know if they should go to school.' She said many of those detained have had no contact with their loved ones or lawyers. The raids have only fueled unrest in the city, Bass said. 'They were going to go after violent felons, drug dealers, and I don't know how that matches with the scenes that we saw of people outside Home Depot running through the parking lot, because they were afraid that they were going to get arrested," she said. Saraí Ortiz said her father, Jose, worked for Ambiance for 18 years. 'It was really painful to see him arrested on Friday with his co-workers,' she told the crowd in Spanish. A judge signed a search warrant that there was probable cause to conclude that Ambiance was using fake documents for some workers, said Ciaran McEvoy, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not shared details about the arrests. 'Ambience Apparel has never created any fictitious documents for its workers," Benjamin N. Gluck, an attorney representing the company, said in a statement. "The company obeys, and continues to obey, all applicable laws. We support our workforce, many of whom have worked faithfully for the company for decades.' The Trump administration did not respond to emails from The Associated Press asking about whether any of the immigrants detained in the raids had criminal records. Los Angeles is one of the nation's largest garment-production hubs with more than 45,000 workers, mostly Latino and Asian immigrants, who cut, sew and finish the clothing, according to the Garment Worker Center. The raids are deepening fears far beyond LA and even among those who are in the country legally, immigrants said. Jot Condie, president and chief executive of the California Restaurant Association, said the fear is keeping away workers and hurting businesses. In LA County last year, food and drink services were a $30 billion industry. Outside a Home Depot in Santa Ana, California, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Los Angeles, a handful of day laborers leaned against their cars waiting to be hired Tuesday, a day after armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers drove up and sent many of the workers running. Junior Ortega, 43, said he saw four people arrested by ICE, while others fled on foot or jumped into a car and peeled out of the parking lot before they were caught. 'They came out with guns, (saying) 'don't move,' '' Ortega said in Spanish. By then, the Honduran citizen who has lived nearly three decades in the U.S. said he had already taken out his green card to avoid making any sudden moves should agents approach him. One of the agents did, and while holding a gun, demanded to see his ID, Ortega said. After he showed it, he said the agent let him go. The day laborer said he recently started carrying not only his driver's license but his green card with him. While he is not directly affected by the immigration raids, Ortega said they still weigh on him and his children. 'Why don't they go and follow the gang members?" he said. "They are coming for people who do things for the country, who pay taxes.'
Washington Post
42 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Trump defends sending troops to L.A.; Newsom warns democracy is ‘under assault'
FORT BRAGG, N.C. — President Donald Trump warned Tuesday that additional protests against federal immigration policies could be 'met with equal or greater force' than the 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines he deployed to try to quell demonstrations in Los Angeles. Trump, speaking to soldiers here, said California's largest city needs to be liberated and defended his decision to send thousands of service members to suppress what he called 'paid troublemakers' and agents of a 'foreign invasion.' 'This anarchy will not stand,' Trump said, referring to the protests. Later on Tuesday, in a scathing public address, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) accused Trump of a 'brazen abuse of power' for mobilizing the military, and warned that democracy in the United States was 'under assault' under a president 'who wants to be bound by no law or constitution.' He accused Trump of conducting a 'military dragnet' across Los Angeles, charging that his administration had gone well beyond what officials had initially described as an effort to go after violent and serious criminals. Instead, he said, the administration's mass deportation effort is 'indiscriminately targeting hardworking immigrant families' and sweeping up people without warrants on the basis of skin color or suspicion. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Newsom's address. Meanwhile, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that sparked days of protests in Los Angeles continued Tuesday, resulting in more than 100 arrests. The demonstrations also spread to other cities, including Austin, San Francisco, Seattle and Portland, Oregon. Most demonstrations remained peaceful, but there were scattered incidents of property damage and clashes with police. In Los Angeles, some blocks downtown turned chaotic, though most of the sprawling city was unaffected. The worst of the violence was limited to a small area near a federal building now being guarded by the National Guard troops that Trump deployed to the city over the weekend. Trump also ordered the U.S. Marines to the area, but there was no visible sign of them Tuesday on L.A.'s streets. That night, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) issued orders for a curfew for part of the city's downtown, starting at 8 p.m. local time and ending 6 a.m. Wednesday, a step she said was taken 'to stop bad actors' from taking advantage of the 'chaotic escalation' by Trump. Trump said the show of force in L.A. should serve as a warning that similar demonstrations in other cities would not be tolerated. 'If we didn't attack this one very strongly, you'd have them all over the country,' Trump said. 'But I can inform the rest of the country that when they do it — if they do it — they're going to be met with equal or greater force than we met right here.' Trump also said he could use force against demonstrations that may erupt in Washington on Saturday, during the military parade he plans to oversee on his birthday. The president's comments come as tensions have continued to escalate between him and Newsom and Los Angeles-area leaders over the administration's decision to deploy troops to the city. Newsom filed an emergency motion in federal court seeking to block the National Guard and active-duty Marines from enforcing immigration and local law 'on the streets of a civilian city.' The Trump administration responded to Newsom's emergency motion by calling it 'legally meritless' and said California's request 'would jeopardize the safety of Department of Homeland Security personnel and interfere with the Federal Government's ability to carry out operations.' U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer scheduled a hearing Thursday to review the matter. The motion had been part of a lawsuit California filed Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California challenging Trump over his deployment of National Guard troops without the governor's consent. In a statement, Newsom's office said that Trump's federalization of the National Guard 'puts every state at risk.' 'This order was not specific to California and suggests that the President could assume control of any state militia,' the statement read. Newsom amplified those concerns in his address Tuesday evening. '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,' he said. 'Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.' Newsom characterized Trump's unilateral deployment of U.S. armed forces to Los Angeles as the first phase of an overall decay in citizens' rights. 'This isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles. … This is about all of us,' he said. 'California may be first,' he added, 'but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next.' The governor also referenced the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, calling it proof that Trump is 'not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as it serves him.' In the address, Newsom condemned protesters who resorted to violence, noting that about 220 people have been arrested so far over the past few days. He added that 'if you exercise your First Amendment rights, please, please, do it peacefully.' 'What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence — to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him,' he said. National Guard soldiers have begun accompanying ICE agents as they detain people suspected of being in the United States illegally, U.S. officials said Tuesday. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, said in a statement that U.S. troops are 'providing protection for federal law enforcement officers as they continue operations to remove the worst of the worst from Los Angeles.' If anyone attacks ICE personnel, the U.S. troops with them 'have the authority to temporarily detain them until law enforcement makes the arrest,' she said. 'The violence against ICE law enforcement must end.' A defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said that although the National Guard initially focused primarily on safeguarding federal property, they were now involved in ICE operations. It was not immediately clear Tuesday night when the shift occurred, the official said. ICE posted photographs Tuesday on X that appeared to show members of the National Guard present as people were detained in Los Angeles. The troops wore camouflage uniforms, helmets and body armor, seemingly providing a protective bubble around law enforcement as people were handcuffed. On Saturday, Trump called up the troops by invoking a rarely used section of a law that gives him the authority to do so when a president considers it needed to suppress a rebellion or foreign invasion. At a hearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the deployments by saying they were needed to protect federal immigration agents. Hegseth estimated the mission would cost $134 million for 60 days of operations. Bass said Los Angeles police, working with state and local partners, had the situation under control and did not need federal intervention. She conceded that some violence and sporadic looting did occur throughout downtown on Monday and early Tuesday morning. The violence began after police pushed demonstrators back from an area around the federal building. Splinter groups of protesters — which Bass described as antagonists — then clashed with police and looted several businesses, including an Apple store. Los Angeles police said at least 94 people were arrested for failure to disperse and another 14 were arrested for looting. Two police officers were also injured. In Austin, police also blamed 'agitators' after rocks were thrown at officers during an anti-ICE protest on Monday. Someone also spit in an officer's eye, the Austin police said. Officers there used pepper balls and tear gas, the police department said. Eight people were arrested on charges including resisting arrest and harassment of a public servant, according to Austin police. Four officers were briefly hospitalized. Skirmishes also broke out Monday night and Tuesday in San Francisco. According to San Francisco police, two groups broke off from a large, mostly peaceful rally Monday and began committing acts of vandalism. About 60 people were arrested. Several more arrests were made Tuesday morning when protests erupted at an immigration court after ICE agents detained three people. When the agents' van attempted to drive away, a group of about 10 protesters attempted to stop the vehicle from leaving. The van slowly pushed the small crowd down the block until it turned a corner. In the hours that followed, around 200 protesters gathered and held signs protesting the detentions. ICE declined to comment or provide details about what sparked the disturbance. In Los Angeles, some protesters say Trump's troop deployments have left them rattled that the country could be sliding toward authoritarianism. Carlos Hernandez, a 67-year-old Salvadoran American who attended a protest there over the weekend, said the military response reminded him of dictatorships that long governed his home country. 'We are recycling repressive methods that were used in the past,' said Hernandez, a consultant and former college professor. 'We have seen tanks on the streets. … It's no joke, this is not a movie. It provokes fear.' Craig and Lamothe reported from Washington and Thebault from Los Angeles. Anumita Kaur, Ben Brasch, Aaron Schaffer and Marianne LeVine in Washington, Caroline O'Donovan in San Francisco, Maeve Reston in Los Angeles and Niha Masih, Kelly Kasulis Cho and Kelsey Ables in Seoul contributed to this report.
