Democrat Governor Challenges Vice President J.D. Vance To Debate

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom challenged Vice President J.D. Vance to a debate after visiting the Golden State and making remarks about Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA), referring to him as Jose Padilla.

“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,” Vance said.

“These guys show up, they want to be captured on camera doing something. They want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, look, me, I stood up against border enforcement,” he added, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles.

“JD Vance served with Alex Padilla in the United States Senate. Calling him ‘Jose Padilla’ is not an accident,” Newsom responded.

WATCH:

FOX 11 Los Angeles reports:

Throughout the press conference he lashed out at Gov. Gavin Newsom saying he egged on protesters and endangered law enforcement personnel.

“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. What happened in Los Angeles, number one, because we’ve got to enforce our borders and get so many of these criminals out of our country to begin with. And number two, when you have violent agitators who make it impossible for the law enforcement to do their job, it is necessary to protect them and to defend them,” Vance exclaimed Friday afternoon.

He also said Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass have treated Border Patrol and Border enforcement as an illegitimate force.

“So first of all, to set the table, we have a public official in Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who over the past few years 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.

He added that law enforcement officers were being captured and beaten by “violent mobs” egged on by Newsom and other officials and that is why Trump activated the National Guard.

Newsom later challenged Vance to a debate.

“Hey @JDVance — nice of you to finally make it out to California. Since you’re so eager to talk about me, how about saying it to my face? Let’s debate. Time and place?” he said.

A Newsom-Vance debate is already being viewed as a potential 2028 presidential election preview.

The Guardian provided more info on Vance’s visit to California:

Newsom’s spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement: “The vice-president’s claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear.”

The friction in Los Angeles began on 6 June, when federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps in the region that have continued since. Amid the protests and over the objections of state and local officials, Trump ordered the deployment of roughly 4,000 national guard troops and 700 marines to the second-largest US city, home to 3.8 million people.

Trump has said that without the military’s involvement, Los Angeles “would be a crime scene like we haven’t seen in years”.

A review of Vance’s movements on Friday suggests that he had very little time to evaluate the situation in the city. His flight from Washington touched down at Los Angeles International airport at 1:35 pm local time. Vance’s motorcade arrived at the federal building in Westwood that is being guarded by active-duty marines at 2pm. He started his news conference at 3:11pm.

It is not clear exactly how much of the intervening 71 minutes Vance spent meeting marines, federal agents and local police officers, but he devoted at least part of that time doing an interview with the Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin.

At 3:30 pm, Vance departed the federal building for a Republican National Committee event. By 6:05pm, he was back on Air Force Two at LAX and ready for departure just four and a half hours after he had arrived.



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