‘Other States Are Next’: California Gov. Gavin Newsom Addresses Nation in Speech Against Trump

TIME

"What’s happening right now is very different than anything we’ve seen before,” Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, said in a speech Tuesday night that was seemingly addressed as much to his own state’s residents as to the nation.

Transcript

00:00This past weekend, federal agents conducted large-scale workplace raids in and around Los

00:05Angeles. Those raids continue as I speak. California is no stranger to immigration

00:10enforcement, but instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious

00:14criminal records and people with final deportation orders, a strategy both parties

00:20have long supported, this administration is pushing mass deportations, indiscriminately

00:26targeting hard-working immigrant families, regardless of their routes or risk. Donald

00:32Trump, without consulting California law enforcement leaders, commandeered 2,000 of our state's

00:39National Guard members to deploy on our streets, illegally and for no reason. This brazen

00:45abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people,

00:52our officers and even our National Guard at risk. That's when the downward spiral began.

00:58He doubled down on his dangerous National Guard deployment by fanning the flames even harder.

01:04He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety. He federalized

01:12another 2,000 Guard members. He deployed more than 700 active U.S. Marines. These are the

01:20men and women trained for foreign combat, not domestic law enforcement. Trump is pulling a military

01:26dragnet all across Los Angeles, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious

01:33criminals. His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers, and seamstresses. That's

01:40just weakness, weakness masquerading as strength. Donald Trump's government isn't protecting our

01:47communities. They're traumatizing our communities. And that seems to be the entire point. California

01:53will keep fighting. It will keep fighting on behalf of our people, all of our people, including

01:58in the courts. Just yesterday, we filed a legal challenge to Donald Trump's reckless deployment

02:04of American troops to a major American city. Today, we sought an emergency court order to stop the use

02:12of the American military to engage in law enforcement activities across Los Angeles.

02:17This isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles. When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to

02:23commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about

02:29all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are

02:37next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has

02:45arrived. This moment we all need to stand up and be held to account a higher level of accountability.

02:52If you exercise your First Amendment rights, please, please do it peacefully. I know many of you are

02:58feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear, but I want you to know that you are the antidote to that fear

03:05and that anxiety. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence to be complicit in this

03:13moment. Do not give in to him.

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