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A reporter went head-to-head with the Democratic speaker of the California Assembly about whether lawmakers should be focused on earmarking legal funds to “Trump-proof” the Golden State while wildfires in the Los Angeles region are still ablaze.
“Is now the right time to have a special legislative session on allocating money to fight Trump in a way that you could already do without a special legislative session?” KCRA correspondent Ashley Zavala asked Speaker Robert Rivas on Thursday.
“I’m here to address … these wildfires,” Rivas responded. “This is a historic, historic wildfire. This is, this is a historic event. These wildfires, as I mentioned, are going to be, quite possibly, some of the worst wildfires and disasters in the state and national history.”
Zavala fired back, saying “while this wildfire is happening, and while people are trying to understand what’s going on and are worried about disaster relief, worried about the ability to get homeowners insurance, your chamber gaveled into a special legislative session to prepare for Donald Trump in a way that you are already able to do without a special legislative session. So again, is now the right time for that?”
Again, Rivas pivoted his answer to focusing on wildfire recovery, but did not directly answer Zavala’s inquiry.
“So certainly our focus right now, as Speaker, Ashley, at this moment, my colleagues and I, we are acting with great urgency, great urgency, to ensure that we’re providing much needed relief to Angelenos, to ensure that we understand what it’s going to take for that for this region to recover and and to support those that have been most impacted by this disaster,” Rivas said. “And you know it’s … the response from our first responders has been unprecedented, and they’re doing all that they can to control and contain, again, these multiple fires and doing whatever they can to ensure that they’re keeping people safe now, and again in anticipation and in preparation for recovery, and as a state, we will, as a legislature we will do everything we can to support that recovery.”
‘DEVASTATING’: CALIFORNIA HAD RECORD RAINFALL LAST YEAR, BUT LACKED INFRASTRUCTURE TO STORE IT
Shortly after President-elect Donald Trump’s electoral victory, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a special legislative session to bolster the state’s legal fund in the case of attacks from the Trump administration. Trump hit back at Newsom after the announcement, saying on his Truth Social account, “He is using the term ‘Trump-Proof’ as a way of stopping all of the GREAT things that can be done to ‘Make California Great Again,’ but I just overwhelmingly won the Election.”
Between 2017 and 2021, California’s Department of Justice led 122 lawsuits against Trump administration policies, spending $42 million on litigation. Newsom’s office said in one case, the federal government was ordered to reimburse California nearly $60 million in public safety grants.
While California filed over 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, Trump lobbed only four major lawsuits against the state. In 2018, Trump’s DOJ filed a lawsuit over three California sanctuary state laws that restricted cooperation with federal immigration enforcement. That same year, Trump sued California for its state-level net neutrality law.
In 2019, Trump also filed a lawsuit against California’s vehicle emissions standards, attempting to revoke California’s ability to set its own emissions rules. The Trump administration also sued California over its controversial independent contractor law, AB 5, in 2020.
California, a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants, abortion procedures and transgender transition treatments for children, could be targeted by the Trump administration, especially considering Trump’s mass deportation plan of illegal immigrants.
Newsom said previously the Golden State “is a tent pole of the country … protecting and investing in rights and freedoms for all people” and that officials “will work with the incoming administration and we want President Trump to succeed in serving all Americans.”
“But when there is overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will take action,” Newsom said. “And that is exactly what this special session is about – setting this state up for success, regardless of who is in the White House.”