‘They're about stoking fear': Harris rips Trump administration over Los Angeles crackdown
Former Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has accused the Trump administration of escalating the situation in Los Angeles 'to provoke chaos'.
Harris criticized the decision to send in the National Guard to tackle activists opposing arrests being made by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents as part of an effort to round-up and deport undocumented migrants.
She also claimed that the protesters who have taken to the streets of Los Angeles to demonstrate against Trump 's crackdown were 'overwhelmingly peaceful'.
Protesters have clashed with police officers for the last three days in opposition to ICE's latest raids, resulting in violent scenes as the authorities retaliate with tear gas and flash grenades in an attempt to maintain order.
'Los Angeles is my home,' Harris, the state's former attorney general, said in a statement posted to social media. 'And like so many Americans, I am appalled at what we are witnessing on the streets of our city. Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos.'
She characterized ICE's actions as 'part of the Trump administration's cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.'
Harris continued: 'This administration's actions are not about public safety – they are about stoking fear. Fear of a community demanding dignity and due process.'
She went on to express her support for the activists taking part, noting that protest is 'a power tool – essential in the fight for justice.'
'I continue to support the millions of Americans who are standing up to protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms,' Harris concluded.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has been the most vocal public figure opposing the president's intervention in the unrest so far, accusing Trump of 'manufacturing a crisis' and behaving like a dictator. The Democrats also challenged Trump's 'tough guy' border czar Tom Homan to arrest him.
The first of the 2,000 federalized members of the National Guard entered the fray on Sunday and Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a late-night press conference that 27 new arrests had been made that day, warning that the clashes were 'getting increasingly worse and more violent.'
ICE operations across Los Angeles County since Friday have so far resulted in the arrest of 118 accused illegal immigrants despite the local resistance agents have encountered, the Department of Homeland Security has said.
The episode is the latest obstacle encountered by the Trump administration as part of its effort to orchestrate the largest mass deportation push in American history, which has seen the president invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expand his authority.
Harris has largely kept out of the public eye since losing last November's presidential election to Trump but did make a surprise appearance at the Met Gala a month ago.
That came a week after she accused the Republican of 'abandoning American ideals' and setting the U.S. on the path to recession through his chaotic tariff policy in a speech in San Francisco in April, predicting the coming storm would amount to the 'greatest man-made economic crisis in modern presidential history.'
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The Sun
21 minutes ago
- The Sun
Trump insists riots would have ‘completely obliterated' LA without National Guard and demands Dems say ‘THANK YOU'
DONALD Trump has doubled down on his decision to send the National Guard to Los Angeles after days of unrest in the city. The president said California Governor Gavin Newsom should be thanking him for deploying the troops to protests downtown against federal immigration raids. 8 8 8 8 However, Newsom was furious with Trump's decision to send federal service members without his permission and slammed the move as "illegal" and "immoral," as he plans to bring a lawsuit against the Trump administration over it. Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, insist that the peaceful protests turned into riots on Sunday night only in response to the National Guard showing up. But Trump said on Monday the city would be "completely obliterated" if he hadn't mobilized the Guard. "We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California. If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated," he wrote on Truth Social. "The very incompetent 'Governor,' Gavin Newscum, and 'Mayor,' Karen Bass, should be saying, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP, YOU ARE SO WONDERFUL. WE WOULD BE NOTHING WITHOUT YOU, SIR.'" He continued, "Instead, they choose to lie to the People of California and America by saying that we weren't needed, and that these are 'peaceful protests.'" Rioters looted shops, set self-driving Waymo cars on fire, and blocked off the 101 Freeway on Sunday night after the National Guard was deployed. Cops used tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls to push back the protesters, even shooting a TV reporter with rubber bullets live on air at the terrifying scene. Newsom has asked Trump to withdraw the troops and threatened to sue the Trump administration after the president authorized 2,000 troops to storm the city. This is the first time in decades that a state's National Guard has been activated without the governor's permission, which Newsom called a "serious breach of state sovereignty." 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The Independent
22 minutes ago
- The Independent
Florida agency tells newspaper to halt reporting angle on foundation associated with governor's wife
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Daily Mail
24 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Wife of Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect reveals if she's standing by him and recounts bizarre 'first date' in jail
Rex Heuermann's wife has described the first time she visited him in prison as like going 'on a first date' as she refuses to believe he could be the infamous Gilgo Beach serial killer. In the new Peacock docuseries 'The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets,' Asa Ellerup gushes over her husband of two decades calling him 'my hero' and 'wonderful' as she recalls the moment she clapped eyes on him again behind bars. 'I haven't seen him in all this time, and when I went down there, I was excited, and like I was, I don't know, I guess on a first date,' she says in a clip obtained by The New York Post. 'You're nervous, you're scared. You don't know how the date is gonna go.' Ellerup, 61, is speaking out in her first televised interview since her husband was arrested in July 2023 for a string of murders that have long haunted Long Island. Heuermann is currently charged with the murders of seven women over a two-decade reign of horror running from 1993 to 2011. All the victims were working as sex workers when they vanished. Their bodies were then found dumped along Ocean Parkway near Gilgo Beach as well as other remote spots on Long Island. Some of the victims had been bound, while others had been dismembered and their remains discarded across multiple locations. Since Heuermann's arrest, prosecutors have unveiled a trove of evidence against him, including hairs belonging to him and his family members found on some of the victims, cellphone data placing him in contact with some victims, and a chilling 'planning document' where he allegedly intricately detailed his kills. The 61-year-old architect has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. In the new docuseries, Ellerup reveals her unwillingness to believe that the man she married and shares two adult children with could be a depraved serial killer - despite being presented with the wealth of evidence against him. 'I know what bad men are capable of doing,' she says. 'I've seen it, and I've heard it from other men. Not my husband. You have the wrong man.' Ellerup opens up about her love story with the hulking architect, revealing that they first met when she was 18 and working in a 7-11. Heuermann was 'tall, dark and handsome' and was a 'hero' to her after she had endured past trauma at the hands of other men. By the time they met, Ellerup - who was adopted from Iceland - says she had been sexually assaulted by a classmate at the age of 16 and had tried to kill herself. At the age of 19, she also narrowly escaped a kidnapping attempt by hiding in a dumpster for hours. But after their first meeting, Ellerup met and married her first husband and had a son, Christopher. Heuermann also married his first wife. When their first marriages both ended, their relationship became romantic and she moved into his childhood home in Massapequa Park - the same home where at least some of the victims are believed to have been murdered. In 1995, Ellerup and Heuermann married in Sweden and had a daughter, Victoria, together. 'He's my hero,' Ellerup gushes of her husband. The mom-of-two insists the Massapequa Park native is 'a family man' and that there's 'no freaking way' he was out preying on victims and then coming home to her. 'Telling him that I love him, that will hurt him. What I want to say to him is, "I love you, no matter what." But I don't even want to say "no matter what" because I don't believe he did this,' she says. 'I don't see what everybody else is saying. I don't see phone calls to sex workers.' She tells the docuseries: 'I'm trying to keep myself sane. At the same time, people are saying, "How could you not know that your husband was a serial killer?" 'Wait a minute, I picked him up from the train station every single day. He was home here on the weekends. He smoked a cigar in the garage. 'If he told me that he went out to Lowe's to pick something up and he was gone for an hour, no freaking way is this man going out soliciting sex from a sex worker, killing them and dumping them on Gilgo Beach.' When people question how she couldn't have known what her husband was allegedly doing, Ellerup insists she has 'no knowledge' of the accusations, claims disturbing porn videos found on his hard drive might not belong to him, and denies he would ever frequent sex workers - or that they sometimes attended swinger parties as a couple. 'They're trying to sit there and tell me that, but I have no knowledge of what they keep talking about. "Oh, you must have known." Know what? My husband was home here. He's a family man, period,' she says. Ellerup reveals she continues to speak to her husband in jailhouse phone calls but has not visited him in person for some time. 'I want him to come back home to me,' she adds. Her attorney previously told that she believes he may have been framed for the murders. Despite her unwavering loyalty and refusal to accept his alleged crimes, Ellerup did file for divorce from her husband just days on from his arrest. The divorce - which the family admits was done to protect their assets - was finalized this March. The details of the settlement have not been released. Since then, Ellerup has continued to attend Heuermann's court hearings where the defense is trying to toss critical DNA evidence in the case. Heuermann's legal team is also trying to break up his upcoming trial into five separate trials. Fears that a serial killer or killers were at large on Long Island began back in May 2010, when Shannan Gilbert vanished in bizarre circumstances one night. The 24-year-old, who was working as a sex worker, had gone to see a client in the Oak Beach Association community when she made a terrifying 911 call, saying that someone was trying to kill her. During a search for Gilbert in December 2010, officers came across the body of Melissa Barthelemy in the marshes by Gilgo Beach. Within days, three more women's bodies - Amber Costello, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Megan Waterman - had been found. The four victims, who became known as the Gilgo Four, had been dumped within a quarter mile of each other, some of them bound and wrapped in burlap. Over the following months, the remains of seven other victims were found. Gilbert's body was found last. Investigators maintain that she was not a victim, but died by accidental drowning after she fled into the dense thicket that night. The Gilgo Beach serial killer case went unsolved for more than a decade - hampered by a corrupt police chief, James Burke, who was ultimately jailed for beating a man who stole porn from his police cruiser. In July 2023 - following the launch of a new taskforce - Heuermann was dramatically arrested as he left his office in midtown Manhattan. He was initially charged with the murders of three women: Amber Costello, Melissa Barthelemy and Megan Waterman. Since then, he has been charged with the murders of four more victims: Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Sandra Costilla, Jessica Taylor and Valerie Mack. Heuermann had been linked to the murders following a tip about a pickup truck. According to a witness, Costello had disappeared after going to see a client who drove a green Chevy Avalanche in September 2010. He also matched the description of the client seen by the witness. Heuermann, Ellerup and Victoria were found to be a DNA match to hairs found on some of the victims, according to prosecutors. Prosecutors said investigators also found a chilling 'planning document' on a hard drive in the basement of Heuermann's family home including a section detailed 'PREP' and noting that 'small' women were preferred. Heuermann has lived his entire life in Massapequa Park and would commute to his architecture job in Midtown Manhattan, where some of the victims worked and were last seen alive. He was especially familiar with Ocean Parkway, where the victims' bodies were dumped, thanks to a job he had at Jones Beach in his 20s, according to prosecutors. Heuermann has not been charged in connection to the deaths of the other four victims found along Ocean Parkway: Karen Vergata, Tanya Jackson and her two-year-old daughter Tatiana Dykes, and an unidentified victim, known only as 'Asian Doe.' Jackson - a US Army veteran - and her infant daughter were finally identified this April, having for years been known only as 'Peaches' and 'Baby Doe.' Costilla, meanwhile, had never been linked to the Gilgo Beach serial killer case until Heuermann was hit with charges for her murder in 2024. Her murder expands the timeline that the accused serial killer is alleged to have been actively preying on victims to more than 30 years ago.
