California isn't trying to leave the Union. It's resisting federal demands that the state play a role in seizing and expelling undocumented migrants who have made their way there.
So secession isn't an apt historical comparison. The Fugitive Slave Act is.https://t.co/BtAOrIIHcq
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) March 7, 2018
Gov. Brown is not taking the bullshit from Trump and Sessions anymore and was quite restrained in calling them liars. This is how you handle this crap (and reporters – grow a spine and stop transmitting these lies). pic.twitter.com/ptDFIrxYSN
— Dan Murphy (@bungdan) March 7, 2018
That’s quite an analogy, but IMO it holds up. CNN on Sessions’ CA visit:
California Gov. Jerry Brown fired back at Attorney General Jeff Sessions and President Donald Trump on Wednesday after their lawsuit challenging the state’s immigration laws, calling the administration “full of liars” and repeatedly referencing the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election…
“I do think this is pure red meat for the base, and I would assume — this is pure speculation — that Jeff thinks Donald will be happier with him and I bet Donald will be tweeting his joy with this stunt,” Brown said.
Special counsel Robert “Mueller is closing in. There are more indictments to come. So obviously the attorney general has found it hard to be just a normal attorney general. He’s been caught up in the whirlwind,” Brown added.
Brown accused the administration of “going to war” with California and said Sessions was acting “more like Fox News than a law enforcement officer” in his visit…
In a speech laden with tough rhetoric for his critics and immigration advocates, Sessions on Wednesday morning had decried officials who support sanctuary city policies as “extremists” promoting “open borders.”
“Stop treating immigration agents differently from everybody else for the purpose of eviscerating border and immigration laws and advancing an open borders philosophy shared by only a few, the most radical extremists,” Sessions said.
When Sessions is fired he'll be like a reverse Schindler…wondering how much more racism his watch could've bought. https://t.co/K9nfAJe3GX
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) September 15, 2017
Gov. Brown and AG Becerra make a great tag team, too — NPR’s Judy Woodruff showed up with a mouthful of whutaboudism pap, and this ensued:
Judy Woodruff:Attorney General Becerra, what do you say to Attorney General Sessions’ charge that California has essentially, I mean, in his words, enacted a number of laws designed to “intentionally obstruct the work of our sworn immigration enforcement officers,” to intentionally undermine their ability to do their jobs?
Xavier Becerra:Well, it’s an intentional misrepresentation.
If you just simply read the laws, most of those statutes say from the very beginning, except as required by federal law, we will do this. Or they actually point out the statute that the Trump administration has tried to sue California on, where we actually cite the words of the statute in those provisions of law that we have in California that essentially protect the federal government’s right to enforce immigration law.
And so they continue to say these things, but the statutes that they point to that say that — restrict the ability of ICE to do its work are the very statutes that say that we exempt federal law, or we allow federal law to take precedent over anything that the state law says…
Gov. Jerry Brown:Yes. And, by the way, the attorney general got a very tepid response. I think,out of 200 people, 10 people stood up after he gave his speech.
And the most important police chiefs support these bills. They don’t support Jeff Sessions.
Judy Woodruff: Very quickly, Governor, President Trump is going to be in California next week. Do you have plans to meet with him?
Gov. Jerry Brown: Well, he hasn’t let me know.
By the way, we called Sessions’ office, the attorney general’s office, are you coming out? They wouldn’t even take the call. But they notified the press.
This is press release politics. I don’t know whether — Trump, he can call me on the phone. I have talked to him before about disaster relief. We had a very fine conversation.
So, look, I want to collaborate, but I’m not going to be complicit with lies and denigrating the great state of California.
Yeah, I somehow suspect Governor Brown’s invitation to the Trump rally won’t be forthcoming.
Brachiator
Oh hell, yes!
Mary G
Trump and Sessions are trying to punch well above their weight when they take Jerry on. I wish we hadn’t voted for term limits because those are going to be big shoes to fill.
Major Major Major Major
This is an amazing channeling of Trumpian style.
laura
@Major Major Major Major: well, there’s always a Dan Walters and a Joel Fox and the other eight Central Valley, So-Cal right wing radio fan boys…
And then they ran over to have theier picture taken in front of the Lady Bird blue house before the sad, bus ride back to the Inland Empire.
SectionH
@Mary G: Oh yes. I just don’t want to think about it now. Srsly.
@Major Major Major Major: Oh yeah. A Level trolling.
I liked Jerry when all the MSM shit was “Gov Moonbeam?”when I was a kid in the Midwest with totally no interest in California. But I’ve been kinda political since I was 9, so yeah, so I remember that. And srsly? the crap being thrown at him? Such a media hatchet job then. Because it was.
I live in CA now and OMG I love him. He’s got a few blind spots, but I’d sooooooooo love to keep him.
Darkrose
Jerry Brown ran out of fucks to give a long time ago. DOTUS and the KKKeebler Elf are way out of their weight class if they’re trying to box with our governor.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I’m old enough to remember when Gov. Brown had hair.
WereBear
Which is why I am against term limits. It doesn’t bother the Republicans, who can always dig up a puppet when they need one. They push term limits to mess with us.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@WereBear: We’ve always had term limits, they’re called elections.
frosty
@?BillinGlendaleCA: LOL! So am I — voted for him in ’76. Liked him then, like him more now.
JWR
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Said with a chuckle by none other than Ronald Reagan. (God I hated that man, but he was right on this one issue!) But my first vote was in ’76, the first year I was eligible, and I wrote-in Jerry Brown as my choice for president.
ETA: I was a visionary, I guess. ;-)
frosty
@frosty: Oops, must have been ’74 and ’78 when he ran for governor. I had to go look it up.
kindness
I voted for Jerry Brown the first time he was governor. The second time too. Jerry’s second time has been awesome. Jerry is the epitome of what government should be. He’s liberal but fiscally minded. Republicans, especially those from out of state, still try to say California is failing but the numbers say they are the liars. And Californians know it and appreciate it. Even home state Republicans if you ask them privately.
schrodingers_cat
Was Judy Woodruff always such a hack and an R water carrier? I have vague recollections of her being a fairly decent interviewer. But she has been terrible the last 5 years or so since she transitioned to being the main anchor for the Snooze Hour.
Chip Daniels
Jerry Brown is that most rare of politicians, one who is actually a fiscal conservative.
He has always, even in the 70s, stressed caution and prudence and building savings for the inevitable rainy day.
He’s like what conservatives would long for if they were serious.
Mr. Prosser
@schrodingers_cat: Agreed, Woodruff is long past it.
Llelldorin
@schrodingers_cat: She was always a water carrier for the Republicans, but she used to be much better at it and subtler about it. These days she has all the delicate subtlety of an AM radio host.
The Moar You Know
@Mary G: Like watching a four-year old go up against Tyson. They are not remotely in his league. Even the hardcore GOPers in my office know it. They like Jerry in spite of themselves. He pulled this state out of catastrophe and got us in the black within two years, after the Republicans had “tried” (they didn’t try) for twenty years and every year the deficit got worse.
We might never have gotten Jerry without them, so there is that. And we damn sure would not have gotten the supermajority without it. I normally vehemently disagree with the idea of term limits – if people like their representatives they should be allowed to keep them – but my position is evolving, I think that’s the right term.
Skepticat
I’m certain he’s terribly distressed.
This is one of my favorite lines.
kindness
When is Trump coming to California?
I ask because I need time for this fruit to rot just the right amount. Speaking of which…if one person tossed rotted fruit on POTUS, the SS would be all over them. But what if the entire audience tossed rotted vegetables at the same time? Then what?
tamiasmin
@schrodingers_cat: and AL. Woodruff’s perfectly reasonable question provided the opening for Becerra to demolish Sessions’ case. What would you have asked him?
TenguPhule
@kindness:
You’d never be able to smuggle that much in, the smell would give it away for sure.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@kindness:
That’s a question I’ve asked myself. Not exactly this, but similar. What would the SS do if an entire crowd of people charged the President?
TenguPhule
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Shoot them. They have contingency plans for just about every situation imaginable.
And support teams with heavier weapons should be deployable against any mob in under 3 minutes.
Sadly, the SS takes their job very seriously no matter how vile the person they must protect.
Sab
@schrodingers_cat: I think her main focus in life is raising money for March of Dimes, so let’s not piss off the Republican donor base (plus she is from Oklahoma, so old fashioned Republicanism might be her default position.)
Sab
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: They would shoot the crowd. That is their job, to protect the person they are protecting.
Yutsano
@TenguPhule: The primary focus would be extraction of the President from the area of the threat. That would involve some shooting but they aren’t riot police. Their only goal is the safety of their charge.
TenguPhule
@Yutsano: Against a mob in a building that would be the only way to extract their charge from threats given the disparity in numbers and urgency of the situation.