Los Angeles Mayors Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom led a fierce wave of backlash from local officials on Friday to travel to the city and denounce Vice President JD Vance after making comments amid the attack on the US Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the attacks and protests in Southern California.
“Today, the US Vice President spent three or four hours in Los Angeles before holding a press conference, lying and uttering total nonsense to cause division and conflict in our city,” Mayor Bus gave a speech. “Unfortunately, the Vice President didn’t take the time to learn about our city.”
Vance arrived in Los Angeles on Friday, touring multiple federal centers, meeting with leaders and the Marines and making comments to the press. After talking about community unrest and the rise in federal law enforcement after the ongoing immigration sweep in the area, Vance spoke about local and state government actions, calling Newsom and Bass in particular. Vance said the two leaders were actively encouraging “illegal migration” to the LA community, “breaking the law, providing benefits to migrants who came to our country and received generous public support for such things.”
In response, the bus directed a speech to Vance, saying, “The city officials are encouraging violence. We have kept peace. We know that federal officials here were protecting federal buildings. They were not involved in controlling the crowd.”
Bass also denounced Vance and Ice for inciting fear within the community, refusing to let federal agents wear normal clothes, drive regular cars with windows and identifying. “Who are these people? And frankly, the best they have, it looks like they ordered them from Amazon. Are they hunters of grace? Are they vigilantes?” the mayor insisted that federal officials must identify themselves. Otherwise, it will continue to spread fear into the city.
“We were able to deal with violence and vandalism,” Bus said in acknowledging crowd management efforts by the LA Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department and other local law enforcement agencies. “Our streets are peaceful and even if there is vandalism at that height, you’re talking about a few 100 people who aren’t necessarily involved in any of the peaceful protests,” Bass said.
In expressing the general disappointment in the Vice President’s views and speech, both Bass and Newsom explicitly called out Vance to falsely call on Sen. Alex Padilla under a different name.
“Do you dare to disrespect the senator?” asked Bass at a press conference. “The last time I checked, the Vice President of the United States is the President of the US Senate. You will serve with him today. Can you dare to call him Jose? But I think he looked like someone to you. Well, he’s not just us.
Vance had previously responded to questions from news outlets requesting comment on Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Governor Newsom shared in Bass’ remarks via the X-Post, noting that the Vice President worked with Senator Padilla. “It’s not an accident to call him ‘Jose Padilla’,” the governor insisted. Newsom’s press conference office disappointed the vice president’s actions and said that the reporter took part in the press conference and decided that he was “in support of partisan influencers.”
After responding to Vance’s incorrect name call, Bass challenged the Vice President’s intentions even further. “I don’t know if you’ve been here before,” the mayor said. “You parachute to the city. You hand over all kinds of judgments, then leave and add to the provocation. So you try to add to the department or create a division in our city. But I want you to know that our city stands together.”
The bus gestured at the people standing around her. “The people standing with me today are family, business owners, community leaders and representatives, and what you can do can divide us.”
Source link
