Lawrence: Gov. Newsom is showing Americans how to fight Donald Trump

Well, tomorrow, Donald Trump will fly to Alaska to meet with a war criminal, who he has called a genius, in order to avoid questions about a pedophile who raped children while Donald Trump was calling him a terrific guy. It won't work. If Donald Trump does manage to avoid questions about Jeffrey Epstein tomorrow in Alaska, those questions will be waiting for him when he returns to Washington.

Every member of Congress now is getting questions about Jeffrey Epstein. The difference between Democrats and Republicans who get questions about Jeffrey Epstein is that Democrats actually answer those questions. Here is Maryland's Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen in a town hall tonight.

Why won't they release the Epstein files? Couldn't let you leave without that.

So they should release the Epstein files right now. And they obviously have the power to do it. I mean this is something if you rewind the tape, Pam Bondi and so many others said that everyone should have access to the Epstein files and I agree. I think this is a there's enough of a public interest here and that the victims of these terrible crimes deserve to have transparency and accountability

these are I mean I think people recognize just how horrible what happened to these young women and girls was. And the perpetrators should be known and they should be held accountable. And you can release the files in a way that protects the victims, but doesn't protect the perpetrators. Donald Trump's approval rating has dropped to 38 percent, but that is not the worst polling

number Donald Trump faces tonight, because 71 percent of Americans think Donald Trump knew some or a lot about the sex crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein against children before the investigations into Jeffrey Epstein even began. And a majority of Republicans think the same thing. Fifty-six percent of Republicans think Donald Trump knew some or a lot about the sex crimes committed by Jeffrey Epstein.

Fifty-six percent of Republicans. It is at this low point in Donald Trump's public support that he has chosen to try to rig congressional districts in Texas to give Republicans five more Republican seats in the House of Representatives, so that Donald Trump can guarantee that Republicans will control the House of Representatives, and he won't be impeached by the House of Representatives during this term of his presidency. There is only one state bigger than Texas,

and that state has the power to crush Donald Trump's Texas plan for controlling the House of Representatives. And the governor of that state stepped up today to accept the challenge from Donald Trump and Texas Republicans. Here's the good thing about California, folks.

We're the size of 21 state populations combined. We're the fourth largest economy in the world. We're not a small, isolated state. I know they say don't mess with Texas. Well, don't mess with the great golden state. And so we're here with our state of mind, with the clarity of our purpose and

conviction to recognize that we need to reconcile the world we're living in. We do have agency. We are not bystanders in this world. We can shape the future. And that's what we intend to do today. Here he is once again trying to rig the system. He doesn't play by a different set of rules. He doesn't believe in the rules. And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done. It's not good enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be. We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt and we have

got to meet fire with fire and we've got to be the cards that have been dealt and we have got to meet fire with fire and we've got to be held to a higher level of accountability. So that's what this is about. It's not complicated. We're doing this in reaction to a president United States that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, Find me five seats. We're doing it in reaction to that act. We're doing it mindful of our higher angels and better angels. We're doing

it mindful that we want to model better behavior as we've been doing for 15 years in the state of California with our independent redistricting commission. But we cannot unilaterally disarm. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear district by district all across this country, not just in Texas, but in Missouri, where JD Vance went just a week ago, in Indiana, in places like Ohio, in places like Florida.

We need to stand up, not just California. Other blue states need to stand up.

We need to be firm in our resolve.

And so the fight against Donald Trump and Trumpism is now engaged in a way it has never been engaged before by California and its governor. Governor Newsom reminded the country that this all started with a desperate phone call from Donald Trump to the Republican governor of Texas, asking the governor to find him five more House seats in Texas. They want to rig these elections elections and they want the power that

Jeremy Mandarin provides because they know what Donald Trump knows. He's going to lose the midterms. He knows de facto his presidency ends in 17 months. When Speaker Jeffries is back in office. He knows it. Why else, why else would you try to rig the system? Why else would you make the phone call?

He's a failed president. Donald Trump sent his masked ICE agents to loiter outside the building where Governor Newsom was speaking today as yet another demonstration of how Donald Trump wastes the deployment of federal agents and federal troops for his own amusement and his own purely political stunts. Who else sends ice, same time, having a conversation like this? Someone is weak.

Someone is broken. Someone's weakness is masquerading as strength. The most unpopular president in modern history. An economy that's collapsing all around him. You saw the new wholesale prices going up almost a full percentage point today.

Inflation is going up. Job creation is going down. He's trying to rewrite history, Smithsonian, censoring historical facts. And in the spirit of what Adam Schiff said, he's trying to put America in reverse on voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, on women's rights. He wants to bring us back to a pre-1960s world. That's what this is all about. It's about power.

And I want to end on this. And we are about to give power back to the people. Governor Newsom explained that there's a big difference in the way California will redistrict congressional maps of that state. This is the difference between what's happening in Texas and what's happening here in California. You receive a phone call from the President of the United States to then quietly go in the back room and start drawing maps and legislatively try to jam them through against the consent

of the people. We're doing precisely the opposite. We're working through a very transparent, temporary and public process. We're putting the maps on the ballot and we're giving the power to the people. This will be the first redistricting that's ever done. That's the difference.

We tried to raise the standards and these guys are not playing by any set of rules. So this time requires us to act aew, not just think anew. And so, this is what fighting Donald Trump looks like. Gavin Newsom and California Democrats have found a way to fight Donald Trump's attacks on democracy by using democracy against Donald Trump.

And so, the biggest state in the union, the richest state in the union, has finally been provoked to show Donald Trump just how much power that state has. Gavin Newsom is now leading California to the rescue of the United States of America, to the rescue of democracy in America. And today, Gavin Newsom showed millions of people who have been feeling powerless, millions of Californians who voted for the California candidate for president in the last election,

that they still have power. The voters of California can feel left out in presidential elections. The candidates never bothered to campaign in California, because everyone knows how California is going to vote in a presidential election. California doesn't have the power to turn the election one way or another, the way much smaller states like neighboring Arizona do.

Voting in California in a presidential election can be an exercise in dutiful civic frustration, carrying out your civic duty, knowing it won't make a difference when you're watching the election returns that night. Today, California Governor Gavin Newsom changed all that. Today, Gavin Newsom told California voters they hold in their hands the power to break Donald Trump's grip on every branch of the federal government, a power that, tonight, no other state has.

You have the power to stand up to Trump. You have the power to declare that you support a system that is not rigged. You have the power on November 4th to stand up for people that are being bullied. You have the power to stand up for people that are being intimidated. You have the power to stand up to the rule of law. We're giving the people of this state the power to save democracy,

not just in California, but all across the United States of America. I hope we are waking up to this reality. Wake up, America. Wake up to what Donald Trump is doing. Wake up to his assaults.

Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to a war on science and public health. It is war against the American people. This is a guy who lays claim to want to get a Nobel Prize sitting there and This is a guy who lays claim to want to get a Nobel Prize sitting there and bending his knee to Mr. Putin.