Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass dismissed Donald Trump’s baseless accusation that she and California Gov. Gavin Newsom paid anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement protesters.
Bass appeared stunned by the president’s comments when confronted on CNN Tuesday, asking host Erin Burnett, “wait a minute, are you telling me that he said we PAID for the violence to take place? Is that what you said?”
Burnett responded: “I’m just quoting to you what he said, it is as our Kristen Holmes reported, sometimes unclear exactly what he exactly means or is saying but that is the quote of what he said.”
A seemingly shocked Bass said in reply, “Let me just say it is absolutely absurd that either myself or the governor would be supportive in any way, shape or form to the vandalism and the violence that is taking place in our city,” Bass told CNN Burnett.
“I guess he has not heard any of my comments or any of my press conferences, because I have been abundantly clear that what is happening on our streets is unacceptable,” she continued. “When it is criminal behavior, people will be arrested and prosecuted.”
Earlier that afternoon, the president—like he did when Republican lawmakers’ town halls were disrupted by constituents angry with his administration—tried to portray the discontent as manufactured.
“In Los Angeles, the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles—they’re incompetent, and they paid troublemakers, agitators and insurrectionists,” Trump argued Tuesday at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg during a speech intended on marking the Army’s 250th birthday.
“They’re engaged in this willful attempt to nullify federal law and aid the occupation of the city by criminal invaders,” he went on. “That’s what it is. They’re invaders. No different.”
Bass and Newsom have called on protesters to not give Trump an opportunity to exploit violence and property damage.
“You can’t possibly be supporting immigrants and vandalize our city,” Bass said at at press conference Monday. “This was chaos that was started in Washington, D.C. On Thursday, the city was peaceful. On Friday, it was not because of the intervention of the federal government.”
Newsom added in a social media post, “This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego. This is Reckless. Pointless. And Disrespectful to our troops.”
Newsom is seeking a restraining order against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying they “intend to use unlawfully federalized National Guard troops and Marines to accompany federal immigration enforcement officers on raids throughout Los Angeles.”
The Trump administration’s decision to send Marines and the National Guard to Los Angeles will cost $134 million, the Department of Defense estimated.
Hegseth was grilled about that fact Tuesday on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers also brought up photographs shared by Newsom and others showing troops sleeping on floors.
Hegseth insisted that “the commanders and troops in the field are very well prepared,” adding: “They responded incredibly rapidly to a deteriorating situation with equipment and capabilities.”
Trump has long accused his political opponents of being financially compensated for their actions. Besides the GOP town halls earlier this year, he used the term “paid protesters” or something similar in reference to grassroots backlash during his 2016 campaign, after his election win, around the time of his inauguration a few months later, and during Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 2018.
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