FED UP Gavin Newsom hits Trump with news he FEARED MOST

I'm joined now by Governor Gavin Newsom. We are in downtown LA at the Democracy Center. Thanks for joining me.

By the way, this is interesting. Little Tokyo. This is the site, quite literally, right outside where the Japanese were picked up, arrested, interned and bused in the 1940s. So it's a poignant place for us to be at this moment.

Well, I'm glad you brought that up because ICE decided to show up today during your announcement which we'll talk about in just a moment. So first and foremost can I have your reaction to the fact that Trump decided to deploy his troops here, not an accident, to come here while you were having your press conference?

Yeah and he sent his regional border patrol director here as well as the spokesperson. He made our point. I don't think we had to say a word. He made the point. I don't think we had to say a word. He made the point we're making. Not only is he rigging the election, he's trying to ruin and wreck democracy. He's no longer even feigning that he has dictatorial tendencies or authoritarian tendencies.

He's acting out on them. It was an act of intimidation. It was an act, however, of weakness. What else would you send them out? How pathetic, how small. And it's a sign of things to come and I assure you what you saw today, what happened here today is going to happen tomorrow in a town near you. My biggest fear, and I said this months ago to you, is that we're going to see the National Guard federalized in other parts of the country.

You're starting to see that under different circumstances, subtly, in D.C. But you're going to see ICE and Border Patrol sent out to polling places and voting booths during the election. This was an act of intimidation, and that's exactly why this initiative is so important.

These Trump supporters are going to claim that this was done in the interest of combating crime. But of course, we know that if you're looking at combating crime, there are other states across the country that have higher crime rates, higher per capita crime rates than Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and yet these were the cities that he opted to deploy

these people too. Yeah, well I think you should start with Shreveport, Louisiana, in Speaker Johnson's district that has six plus times the per capita murder rate of Nancy Pelosi, San Francisco. What about the carnage, Mr. President, in Shreveport? Why aren't you protecting the folks there? Eight of the top ten murder states in this country, red states. What bullshit. And everyone knows it.

Everybody knows it. Again, it's acts of authoritarianism. It's acts of power on a person that is trying to use his moral, his formal authority, and it's depleting. And it's weak. It's increasingly weak and it's increasingly desperate. And that's why it's important for us at this moment to meet him head on, not just rhetorically, but through substantive counteractions. And that's what we're doing in California with this ballot issue.

Now, you had brought up a point that I've focused on quite a bit, which is the idea that he is laying the predicate now, basically normalizing us to this idea that he's going to be able to deploy the troops. Can you talk about what that may look like as we head closer to 2026? And look, we've seen him try and seize voting machines in Georgia, he tried to do it in 2020, but now that he knows he kind of is able to normalize Americans to this idea of

deploying troops into Los Angeles, into DC, what could that mean if you're looking at a city like Philadelphia, a city like Detroit, a city like Milwaukee, a city like Atlanta, which are of course these, you know, Democratic strongholds within these swing states that are going to determine the election.

Well, I'll tell you what it looks like. It looks like a gun to the head of a 15-year-old disabled boy, born in the United States of America that doesn't look like you and me trying to go to school. That's what just happened here in Los Angeles. I'll tell you what it manifests. That kid doesn't, many other people saw that.

They may not send their kids to school. It means people are not showing up in their classroom, people are not showing up to get their flu shot at the emergency room, or people that are sick not even accessing emergency care. It means people that may be witnesses of crime not even be willing to go forward to help keep our community safe. It's a chilling effect, people not going out to go grocery shopping or doing so only late at night. People getting into other people's cars that look like you and me to drive them to go shopping so they're not racially profiled if they're driving by the Home Depot or a car wash.

And it will happen in more insidious ways if it happens during the election. And that's exactly what this is about. It's about clearing the streets. It's about creating panic. People are not going to sit there in a line where they can't even get water in some states, and they're not gonna sit there waiting two or three hours if ICE or Border Patrol shows up. It's precisely, again, why people need to wake up

and disabuse themselves that democracy is going to survive if we do not push back. It won't, it's the rule of Don, no longer the rule of law. And people need to understand the lines that are being redrawn in Texas are not about party. They're about power. And you've got to meet fire with fire, and power needs to be asserted in blue states, not just red states.

Our state of mind has to be more firm, more resolved, and more aggressive.

So let's use that to jump into what you spoke about today. Can you give a brief overview of your announcement at the press conference?

We're moving forward with a special election on November 4th, coinciding with other local municipal elections to neuter, to neutralize anything that Greg Abbott and Republicans are doing in Texas. They do five seats, we do five seats. And we're not only doing that, we're also announcing, as a consequence of this effort,

a commitment to national independent redistricting. Well, that's on the ballot as well. We believe it's the right thing to do. In fact, the Democratic Party believes it's the right thing to do. Democrats have voted for national independent redistricting.

Republicans have not. So spare me the crocodile tears on Fox and everyone else saying, oh, everybody does this. Oh, these guys have been gerrymandering for years and years and years. Not like these folks have. And we're at least willing to call that out. And in California, we have moral authority because for 15 years we've had an independent

redistricting commission. And we have some of the most competitive races. They may be going to Democrats. That's on the basis of competition, but some of the most competitive districts in America.

Find me districts as close as the ones we have in California where Valadieo is winning, where Ken Calvert is winning, where Darrell Issa is winning and show me the equivalent in a place like Texas. You have New York and you have California, the biggest weapons for Democrats who have independent redistricting commissions, and yet look at what the Republicans have in their big weapons. Texas and Florida, you have this, you have gerrymandered states that are being gerrymandered

even further to consolidate power for these Republicans. Which raises the question, if Greg Abbott and these Texas Republicans want to ramp up the stakes even further, are we going to have time to offer some commensurate response to

that? No, and to your credit, you've been talking a lot more about that, particularly in relationship to the Voting Rights Act, particularly in relationship to the Supreme Court and the likelihood, it appears, that they may throw that out. I mean, this is about race. This is not just about justice.

This is not just about the core tenets of our founding fathers. This fundamentally now could get to another level if the Voting Rights Act is thrown out and these guys with total impunity could whitewash, literally, not figuratively, some of these districts all across the country. So look, that's a break the glass. I mean, we've already break the glass.

That's another level. And there's the ability for states to move. They can call special sessions of their legislature, governors of blue states. You can call special elections. You can look at your constitutional constraints and look at the prospect of getting voters to consider constitutional amendments. There are many different tacks we can take right now. This we know we can do. We have the ability to do it for November 4th.

We're getting it through the legislature with two-thirds majorities in both houses. We're going to do it in a transparent way. We're going to do it in a temporary way. And we're going to do it in a democratic way. We're going to put the maps on the ballot. People can see them for themselves. drafted, behind closed doors, and they're not going to be drafted to Donald Trump's liking. So this whole situation has kind of surged onto the scene in just the last few weeks,

really. And to your great credit, you have responded as quickly as you possibly could, you know, wasting no time in getting this thing on the ballot so that we can have our maps redrawn to counteract, to fight fire with fire against what they're doing in Texas. We still have other Democratic governors across the country who we've heard them say the right things but we haven't seen action. And so in light of the fact that you're moving right now, we're getting this thing on the

ballot in just a few months and so this thing is moving as quickly as possible. What's your message to these other governors across the country who represent states that could also serve as weapons to counteract what the Republicans are doing, who haven't made any moves yet, any concrete moves yet to do something.

Well, gratitude to Kathy Hochul, gratitude to J.P. Pitsker for recognizing the urgency of the moment, for hosting the Texas delegation, deep gratitude to the Texas delegation for raising the awareness and the stakes that put a lot of wind in our sail, that gave us the ability to make the case to our legislature. But now it's time to act. Now it's time to take it to the next step. And it's not just those two that have already demonstrated a commitment

on this. It's many other states. There are a lot of other blue states out there. Let's go. Like, I mean, this is it. There's no dress rehearsal. There's not, I mean, this guy is going after any institution that cultivates independent thought. He's rewriting history in real time at the Smithsonian. He's literally going after institutions of higher learning like the UC system and notably here UCLA, which is doing life-saving research that literally is protecting our national security. It's the reason where the

economic tentpole of the American economy and the world economy in the United States of America is a beneficiary. This guy is wrecking it all in real time. We need to wake up. We cannot survive if he rigs not just Texas, but he goes to Indiana, goes to Missouri, goes to Ohio, he goes to Florida.

We have to have other governors of like mind. And there are many to now do something, not goes to Florida. We have to have other governors of like mind, and there are many, to now do something, not just say something.

Right, I think that the main point here is if you stand for any democratic ideal, all of it relies on having a functioning democracy. So if you're a governor or a state legislator in another state and you claim to want to combat climate change or expand health care or protect women's reproductive rights or make unions stronger or whatever it is, protect kids in schools from guns, whatever it may be, all of that relies on being able to survive in a functional democracy,

to have the opportunity to be elected in the first place. And so if the House is rigged, if they're able to scientifically engineer maps so that Democrats are precluded from ever having the opportunity to win, none of it matters. So we can defend, we can claim that we want to stand for something, we can beat our chest about standing up for our values, but if we can't do it, if there's no practical way, if there's no method to actually be in power, then none of that matters.

And so this is the whole ballgame right here.

God bless you. We're about to celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding fathers Co-equal branches of government popular sovereignty rule of law you're spot-on Everything you just said it's spot on this is it and I mean at what but there's Literally no more evidence than you need than the evidence that has been submitted in the first six and a half Seven months of the Trump administration and you think this is gonna get better? You think if we just say, well, Ms. Trump, it's fine.

You know, we know it's a race to the bottom. You know, you may call upon those other states. Can you just do five and California will stand down? God damn it, enough. Democrats, stop being weak. Step up. These guys have been dominating the narrative.

They have been defining the terms of the debate. It's time to get on our heels, onto our front toes. It's time to do just that. Dominate the narrative, flood the zone, and surround sound. It's time for us to all band together.

It is about the United States of America. He doesn't believe in that. He believes in the red states. He's going after, he's a war. He's a wartime president. He's the head of a war party. War on women, war on voting rights, war on Hispanics.

War on this state, war on institutions. I want war on history. I mean, this is serious. This guy's trying to try to say tomorrow in Alaska, that he's the big guy trying to find peace, really, when he's bringing war to the American people? He put military in the streets, not of Baghdad.

And he didn't send the military in his first administration anywhere in the world. He sent the United States Marines into the United States of America in one of the bluest cities in this country, in Los Angeles, one of the great cities, American cities.

That's what Donald Trump did. He is a wartime president.

On this idea of weakness, groups that purport to be good government groups who are pushing back already against this, and I guess, I guess, you know, while we would say we have to push back on this idea of unilaterally disarming, you have some of these good government groups, including a group like the League of Women Voters, who are pushing back here and saying that we shouldn't do this because even though the Republicans are doing it, we have to unilaterally disarm. And so they're aligning themselves with this MAGA movement, with Donald Trump, with Greg

Abbott. And so what's your reaction in light of the fact that we should be fighting fire with fire to protect democracy so that we don't just capitulate completely to the right, that instead they're just focusing solely on, I guess, what's immediately in front of them, which is that pushing back at all is going to be some type of bad government move.

Well, there's no good government when government is totally eliminated. It's no longer the rule of law, back to this notion of rule of dawn. The League of Women Voters thinks that by aligning with Donald Trump, that's all they're doing, it's a binary, it's not complicated. By aligning with Donald Trump, the League of Women Voters thinks that's good government. When he doesn't believe in independent redistricting, he's going to eliminate independent redistricting.

He doesn't believe in advise and consent. He doesn't believe in the power of co-equal branches of government and oversight. When he's trying to rig the election, the rules by playing against with the and brand new set of rules in the mid-decade uh... on the side on the redistricting give me a break

with all due respect to them wrong on this issue

i have to ask uh... because this is a gotten quite a bit of attention online but i have a tweet here's one says this is that what what i would love is for to have you read this

in your voice. If you'd like to just take a shot at it. Well, I mean, wow. Tomorrow history will be made. Now, I'm not going to be as effectively as the person that you may recognize is on Tru Social, but in this case, we pushed this out on Twitter. Caroline Leavitt will have no answers for the supposed fake media about California's beautiful, big beautiful maps. People are saying, people are saying that they're, that we're the greatest maps. They're just saying this.

They are, Brian. People are saying they're greatest maps ever created. Even better than Christopher Columbus's. Donald Trump, be warned that tomorrow may be the worst day of your life, all because you missed the deadline. He misses a lot of deadlines.

Liberation Day for America. G.C.N. I should have said thank you for your attention to this matter.

So what gave you the idea to, I mean, on this idea of fighting fire with fire to literally adopt his rhetorical genius.

Clothes off, man, just gloves off. It's all on the line, it's it. Like enough, you know? You're wearing a tie, I took my tie off, took the tie off.

Like it's it.

Don't dream of regretting. I said that there's no do over. This is it. Wake up to what's going on in this country. And I'll iterate, I'll try anything. That's what that represents.

I'm just trying to break through, man. I'm just trying to be accountable, to be able to look at my kids, said, you know what, I woulda, coulda, shoulda, no, that I did everything I could. And you know what?

See what fate brings, but we're gonna put everything on the damn line, and that's why I'm proud of the folks from Texas, and that's why I'm proud of folks showing up at the No King's Rally. People haven't given up yet. I'm telling you, we can win, we're gonna do this. We can win this November, we can win next November, and then we can get this country back on track,

and I tell you, I took it for granted. I did. Even during Trump one point, I took so much for granted. And people ask all the time, well, do you think authoritarianism, well, not yet for me, but sure as hell for the people walking on the streets that look different from me.

And now I even wonder if you got these big corporate titans that are selling their soul. Yeah. Maybe it's come for them as well. I wonder if you've got these big corporate titans that are selling their soul. Maybe it's come for them as well. Nationalizing, taking 15% of their profits.

Just there was an announcement today about Intel, about the United States government possibly taking a stake in Intel. And it's ironic that it's happening at the hands of people who vilify Democrats as communists, where you have the government now taking states and private companies.

You're worried about Mandani, really? Seriously? And you're sitting there condoning this kind of behavior? Crony capitalism? Yeah. Writing big checks, maybe buying crypto? I mean, the greatest grift in American history, billions and billions of dollars? I mean, this is sick. This is sick. This is sick.

This cannot continue. And if institutions like Harvard are going to sell their soul, then we need to do more. And we have to call this out. This is, I don't want to overstate it, but I can't understate how important November 4th is. And that's why I call it Liberation Day here in California. This is it, man.

If we roll over, we fail. Fourth largest economy in the world, size of 21 state populations combined. If we can't, in the most untrumped state, push back, I don't know what's gonna happen in three years. This guy will run again.

To that point, this is gonna be a heavy lift, and we'll finish off with this. This is gonna be a heavy lift as we head toward November 4th, and certainly there's gonna be opposition. The RNC is going to oppose this and they're going to put all of their eggs in this basket

to fight this in California because it's going to be easier for them to fight it in one state like California, an easy scapegoat for them, than it is going to be to fight this thing nationwide. And so what can folks who are watching and listening right now do to help? Because I know this is going to be an expensive lift.

This initiative is about giving you power. The power to stop Donald Trump. The power to push back against rigged elections. The power to have a national election that's fair. It's the power to push back. And that power is about showing up.

It's about making a contribution. If you can do $3, $5, $10, the cost. There are a lot of folks, I'm just at a level set with you and I hate to even acknowledge this, that are scared to write a big check because they know that Donald Trump may threaten them. That it's mutually guaranteed.

We're counting on you. We the people. We exist by the consent of the people. This is it. This is it. So we need people to the extent you can, to contribute, let folks know what's at stake.

This is not about California's five seats. This is about representation across this country. And things that you see on your TV that are happening here in LA, again, I cannot impress upon you more, are previews of things to come in your backyard unless we stand up and push

back. Well, look, this is the entire ballgame right here and these next few months are going to be absolutely pivotal. So for everybody watching and listening, if you can contribute, help get the word out, that's going to be crucial here. So I'm going to put the link right here on the screen.

I'm going to put it in the post description of this video. If you're listening on the podcast, it'll be in the word out to as many people as possible because to the governor's point, this is the whole ballgame here. And these next couple of months are going to be crucial in terms of what happens not just in California over the next year, but also in terms of this country in the next few years. So with that said, Gov, thanks so much for the time.

I appreciate it. Great to be with you. Great to be with you.

Thank you, buddy.