Vice President JD Vance visited Los Angeles on Friday, castigating California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for policies that enabled the rioters.
The vice president held a press briefing at the Federal Building Command Center in Los Angeles, delivering remarks amid the ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids and protests. He stated that reports showed that the National Guard remained necessary to contain the riots as law enforcement feared that these protests could “flare back up.”
Vance claimed both Newsom and Bass have “actively encouraged illegal migration into this community, have strained public services, have strained law enforcement, and really have offered generous benefits not to American citizens, but to illegal immigrants, to break the law, to come into our country and to receive generous public assistance for having done so.”
He added that their policies have created an illegal immigration crisis, with Los Angeles being the most affected.
”All of these law enforcement officials were necessary because what happened is in response to the basic federal action of enforcing immigration law,” the vice president continued. “You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law, and they had rioters egged on by the governor and the mayor making it harder for them to do their job. That is disgraceful. And it is why the president has responded so forcefully.”
Vance reiterated the need to deploy troops, saying “It was necessary to send the National Guard to stop that process, to bring some order back to this great city and to make it possible for the people’s president to enforce the people’s immigration law.”
Afterward, the vice president answered some questions, criticizing Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Democrat lawmakers for making “political theater” out of this situation. Padilla was dragged out of a news conference last week, after he interrupted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Well, I was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question, but unfortunately, I guess he decided not to show up because there wasn’t the theater, and that’s all it is, you know, I think everybody realizes that’s what this is. It’s pure political theater,” the vice president said, using the wrong name for Padilla.
“I just want to let you know from the president, the vice president on down this administration stands with you. We’re grateful for the job that you do every single day. We know that we wouldn’t have a border were not for your hard work and for your efforts. And we’re going to keep on fighting for you and keep on standing with you every step of the way.”
Newsom, a Democrat, responded to Vance by challenging him to a debate in a X post. “Since you’re so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face? Let’s debate. Time and place?” wrote Newsom.
Bass, a Democrat, addressed Vance in a press conference of her own later Friday.
“How dare you say that city officials encouraged violence,” Bass said, according to the New York Times. “We kept the peace.”
“The federal officials that were here protected a federal building,” she continued. “Crowd control was handled most aptly by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department and local law enforcement.”