BREAKING: California announces SURPRISE BLOW against Trump

I'm joined now by California Attorney. General Rob Bonta. Thanks so much for. joining me. Thanks for having me, Brian. Good to see you again. Good to see you, too. So, the a major story right now. that's been sweeping across the country. is the fact that the DOJ, Donald Trump's. Department of Justice, has announced. that they're sending poll monitors, poll. watchers, into California and New. Jersey. And obviously, there is a ton of. room for them to be able to abuse the. system by using, you know, folks from. the federal government who are loyal to. Donald Trump and his agenda, but there. is a response being put forward by you. and the folks here in California. Can.

you explain what that is? Absolutely. You know, we got notice last week that. the US DOJ was sending. um poll monitors to. five different counties in in. California, LA and Orange, Riverside, Kern, Fresno. And um in normal times, this is something that the US DOJ does. do when there's a history of of. violations and um. a sincere and good faith uh effort and. desire to protect the rights of voters, but these are not normal times and this. has been a historic presidency,

historically unlawful, historically. unconstitutional, historically. undemocratic, and historically. un-American. And so, trust is earned, it's not just given, and what they have. done when it comes to voting rights. uh in the last 10 months is attack them. um and with an executive order that. tries to un- undermine um uh the right. to vote when it comes to vote by mail or. um trying to. um. uh attack vote by mail generally. That's. something that Trump has said he posted,

you know, 2 days ago that we need to. watch the outcome of this election on. Prop 50 in California, and he continues. to maintain that he won the 2020. election, which obviously he did not um. and there's no doubt or evidence to show. it. So, uh what we're doing is we're. going to make sure that there are. eyeballs in the room, uh that there are. observers observing the monitors uh to. make sure that they do what they are. lawfully allowed to do and nothing more, and that they don't uh violate uh the. rule uh the rules that govern them, the. law, um that they don't interfere with.

the election process. They may observe, as may others. And and and just to level. set, there are many people who observe. There are members of the Republican. Party, members of the Democratic Party, there are members of the Secretary of. State's office, my office, the Registrar. of Voters' office, members of the. public, nonprofits uh like good. government groups like League of Women. Voters. Transparency is good. Um and uh. we have nothing to hide. Uh we are. transparent, and when anyone looks at. our elections process, they'll see that. it is our uh elections are safe, secure,

accurate, reliable. Um so, normally, this type of action is um not. particularly noteworthy, but it is when. it's a state election, only one thing on. the ballot, um seems to be targeting of. uh California once again. Um and I I. don't believe, unfortunately, that. there's a sincere effort to protect the. rights of voters. It It seems like a. precursor of more to come, including. next year uh when the very uh important. midterms are on the ballot. And And. we'll talk about that in just a moment, but I want to ask, who specifically are.

the California-based poll monitors that. are being sent in, and will they have. the same access as the DOJ officials. will? Yes. Um there's a general set of uh. observer rights that apply to anyone, members of uh the public, members of the. US DOJ, members of California DOJ, Secretary of State, Registrar of Voters. So, the the the state-based ones, the. non-US DOJ observers, will be from my. office, from the Secretary of State's. office, also potentially from uh the.

Registrar of Voters in each county. Okay. Now, in terms of the White House's. justification for doing this, what are. we looking at here? Do you think that. that I mean, there is a clear reason. that they're sending these folks in to. states that have blue governors, for. example? I mean, they're not sending any. poll monitors into Virginia. And so, do. you think that the only reason that. they're choosing New Jersey and. California is because there are enough. Democratic officials in place that they. can then use that as a pretext to be. able to say, "Look, the Democrats are in. control here. There was a rigged.

election. We've got folks uh who are. monitoring this. They found all these. discrepancies, all this nefarious. behavior, and it's Democrats from top to. bottom.". The facts don't lie on this, and and I I. wish the answer were different, but. the Trump administration has been. targeting blue states because they're. blue, blue cities because they're blue, deploying National Guard to blue cities. and blue cities only, in the biggest. blue states. And uh that's by design, and uh and and he's clear about it. He's. going after radical leftists and the the.

Democrats. And so, uh it is definitely a. a targeting um of of Democrats, um. and it it it's unfortunate that they're. doing that, but that's clearly what. their MO has been, and I do fear that. there will be some invented or. manufactured. uh crisis that they create, something. they say they observe that's. problematic, which they try to rely on. later next year, where they say requires. more um poll watchers at the polling. stations, maybe even uh you know, National Guard or or or or others. So, I.

don't put it past uh this. administration, unfortunately, based on. their past conduct. And that's exactly. what I wanted to get into. Let's say, for example, that they send poll. monitors in now, and those poll. monitors, who of course are going to be. answerable to Trump, and I can only. imagine the type of people that Trump is. going to be willing to deploy. And let's. say that those people are going to. validate Trump's most egregious lies as. it relates to any inevitable uh. whining about non-existent uh election. fraud or election rigging. What could.

that How could that manifest itself in. 2026? If he's given himself some some, you know, thin pretext, some thin. justification to think that it's okay uh. to send in to take extraordinary. measures because he's told himself that. there's some fraudulent activity going. on, what what could that look like? What's the worst-case scenario in terms. of how he could use that as a basis to. do, you know, whatever he wants in an. unhinged manner in 2026 or 2028? Yeah, you know, and I I just want to be clear. here that that there's no evidence at.

all in California that there's any. widespread voter fraud or anything. problematic. So, the idea of the uh. the US DOJ monitors coming in is, you. know, seems pretextual. Um and they were. requested to come in at the at the. request of the Republican Party. So, the. Republican Party sent a letter to US. DOJ, and US DOJ jumped at the. opportunity to respond to the Republican. Party and come into uh the biggest blue. state in the nation. But, what we could. see down the road is an escalation. This. is a down payment, a precursor of more. to come, potentially. Hopefully not, but. we can't be naive. We got to be.

clear-eyed and sober about what this. president has done. For example, the uh. he's deployed National Guard in um in. LA, Oregon, um. uh Chicago, and DC in the first 9 months. in office, relying on um 10 USC 12406, which has only been relied once befo- on. once before in the history of the United. States. He's relied on it three times. already. Um so, he does unprecedented. things. He escalates quickly. He. justifies it in his own mind with. figments of his imagination. He thinks.

he won the 2020 election. He thinks. there was widespread voter fraud um or. or at least he says there is in order to. promote the the lie, and he he continues. to promote that very dangerous lie, and. I think he will, uh you know, as he does. with the National Guard, he lies about. the facts in order to justify the. action. So, I think he'll lie about the. facts here again, uh lie that there is. some sort of voter fraud, and that he. needs to, uh you know, that bring in. forces or people or resources into. California to ensure that um the there.

[clears throat] is integrity in the. voting process, and that the um the. elections are um accurate um and. reliable. So, having seen him operate before, I I you. know, I I don't wish this to happen. I I. hope it doesn't, but we have to be. clear-eyed and sober about how this man. thinks and how he acts, the big lies. that he promotes, when he promotes them. He's doing it to justify action. Um and. so, we have to be very wary about what. that action might be in the future, and. it could be a mass escalation of. deployment of federal personnel into um.

California. And And of course, that. would suppress the vote. Um that would. intimidate. It would chill. It would. prevent people from participating in. what he might do on vote by mail um is. also of concern. He's He's He has. criticized it and said it should end. based on the strong recommendation of. that champion of democracy, Vladimir. Putin, who told him uh that we should. get rid of vote by mail. Knowing how he operates, and knowing. that he's going to look for the thinnest. pretext of all, uh a baseless pretext.

even, um to perpetuate whatever lies. that he decides he wants to tell, and. and that he does it quickly, are you prepared to be able to fight. back i- in the event that he decides to. glom on to something on on November 4th. and say, "Look, you know, I mean, we saw. a million instances of this, votes in. suitcases." Whatever whatever he lands. on, whatever crazy excuse he lands on. that night, do you have the resources in. place? Do you have a a plan in place to. be able to immediately uh push back on.

whatever he's he's going to push. forward, knowing that those lies are. eventually going to serve as some basis. for him to do the escalation that we all. know he wants to do? We're ready. Uh we've always been ready. We've seen all of the different. potential plays in the playbook. We've. added to it as he's channeled and. projected other actions he might take. We read Project 2025. We listen to. everything he says, and we assume he's. going to do it. So, we're ready to move. quickly. We have a rapid response team. uh ready to move quickly if we need to. go to court. Um courts are still places. uh where the facts matter, where you.

need to have the facts. Uh you can't. just make wild, reckless, irresponsible, um untruthful statements like, unfortunately, this president does. regularly. Um and courts are places. where a judge will look at the actual. facts and the claims of the president, and conclude that the president's. version of the facts is untethered from. the actual facts, which is what uh Judge. Immergut in the District of Oregon said. about um uh uh, Oregon's um. state of affairs on the ground when the. president was saying it's war-ravaged.

and war-torn. Um, she said that that was. untethered from the fact. So, we're we. have a plan. We're prepared to go into. to block any attempts by uh, the. president or his administration to. interfere with the reliable, safe, and. secure elections here in the state of. California. And finally, I want to. switch gears to a different topic. entirely. You and and a number of other. attorneys general across the country. have waged a new lawsuit against this. Trump administration. Can you explain. what that lawsuit is? Absolutely. We. brought our our 45th lawsuit in 40 weeks.

uh, today. Uh, the state of California. did proudly along uh, with 25 other. states. Uh, 23. uh, all 23 Democratic attorney general. states as well as three other states. where there's a Republican AG but a. Democratic governor who wanted to. protect uh, their people and make sure. that they got SNAP benefits, food. assistance uh, from the government. And. we argue that the uh, federal. administration is unlawfully withholding. uh, billions of dollars in funding for. uh, the SNAP program, the Supplemental.

Nutrition Assistance Program, food. stamps. Um, there's a law, the SNAP Act, which says that uh, funding uh, including funding in a contingency fund, which um, the government has, um, shall. be spent. Uh, it's it's a shall. uh, uh, to support SNAP benefits when. that when there is funding uh, in that. pot. And uh, as recently as 2019, the. last government shutdown, that's exactly. what that uh, funding was used for. The. contingency fund was used to fund SNAP. So, uh, there's 41 million people that.

are going to be hurt across the the. nation in both blue states and red. states. It's 5.5 million in California. We're going to lose 1.1 million dollars. in 1 month. This is 8 billion dollars a. a month in terms of the burn rate for. that's expended on on SNAP. So, uh, and. these are children who won't have enough. to eat. Um, these are seniors. These are. the disabled. These are our most. vulnerable. And when it comes. uh, to our most vulnerable, I I believe. our society should be treated on on how. um, our judge and how we treat our most.

vulnerable. And on that regard, in that. regard, Trump gets an F um, because they. do have the money. They can spend it. They are deliberately deciding not to. Uh, so that they can blame the. Democrats. This is this is they're. trying to use it as a cudgel and a. bludgeon uh, in the uh, negotiations. over the government shutdown. Uh, the. funding's there. They can spend it, but. they're not spending it on purpose, hurting people deliberately. Cruelty is. the policy. Cruelty is the outcome. Cruelty is the desire so that they can. then try to blame it on the Democrats.

And they already have on their SNAP. website a statement that says um, the. well is dry. You know, blame the Senate. Democrats essentially. >> Right. Right. I I think you're exactly. right in the sense that that this is. their their governing philosophy. Um, you know, their governing philosophy is. just to help the folks who already have. more than they could ever ask for uh, and just help them consolidate more. wealth, more power for themselves. And. meanwhile, I think the philosophy that. you have on the left is that is that the. government should be there to assist the. most vulnerable. And so, you just have.

as as clear a distinction as you could. possibly have. And it does not help that. the White House right now as they're. continuing to cut these SNAP benefits. for 41, 42 million Americans, as they're. continuing to cut Medicaid from 17. million Americans, as they're looking to. increase ACA subsidies for 24 million. Americans, that what they are focused. on, what is getting done is a $350. million ball room that Donald Trump is. going to be able to enjoy with his with. his, you know, pals and heads of state,

giving Gulfstream jets to Kristi Noem, retrofitting a $400 million Qatari jet. to the tune of a billion dollars paid. for by American taxpayers, hosting crypto dinners so that he can. double his net worth. And of course, adorning the Oval Office in gold. leafing. So, he is putting on full. display what his priorities are. And and. meanwhile, you can you can see who's. kind of getting left behind as the. result of that. With that said, Attorney. General Rob Bonta, thank you so much for. taking the time. I appreciate it. Thanks, Brian. Great to see you. Thanks. for having me. >> [music].