SacBee: Gavin Newsom bashes Trump, seeks last-minute help from Biden during Washington trip
By David Lightman and Gillian Brassil
Gov. Gavin Newsom and California’s congressional Democrats met privately for an hour Wednesday to map out what they expect to be an ugly, uphill fight against President-elect Donald Trump’s anticipated efforts to roll back liberal policies in California.
In the eight days since Trump was elected president, Newsom has taken aggressive steps to combat any bids by the president-elect to deny the state needed federal funds, including calling a special session of the state Legislature that will begin next month to increase funding to the state Department of Justice to mount legal challenges to the incoming administration.
Newsom has once again tried to position himself as Trump’s most outspoken political foe — a drumbeat he kept up on Wednesday, calling Trump’s threats to without disaster relief from the state “pretty childish.”
The Capitol Hill meeting was the conclusion of three days of efforts by Newsom in Washington to boost support for programs he fears will be curtailed under Trump.
But he did little to influence Republicans, who will control the White House, the Senate and probably the House starting in January.
“I think the most important thing I can do right now is to make sure that our coalition and our caucus is all on the same page as we prepare,” he told reporters after the congressional meeting.
Meeting with Biden
Newsom met Tuesday with White House officials and briefly visited with President Joe Biden in the Oval Office.
His biggest concerns involve wildfires, health care and environmental rules.
Trump has threatened to withhold federal emergency wildfire aid over disputes on water access for California farmers.
“I was with an American president yesterday at the Oval Office, and I was with an American president last week when I got a phone call from him saying he wanted to support our efforts on disaster recovery in Ventura, California, that was suffering from a major wildfire, and there were no conditions,” Newsom said.
“That’s not the state of mind of Donald Trump, and it’s not just rhetoric,” he said.
Trump has denounced California’s strict clean transportation rules on reducing vehicle emissions.
The state is allowed to set stricter-than-federal tailpipe emissions standards under the Clean Air Act thanks to permission through a waiver. But right now, eight of these Environmental Protection Agency waivers ranging on coverage from trucks to passenger cars to lawn mowers are pending.
If approved, the Trump administration can revoke them.
California is unlikely to suffer much in broad-based budget programs such as agriculture, defense and transportation. Spending decisions are made by Congress and wind up in massive legislation that usually involves all sorts of compromises over local concerns.
California and Congress
Newsom said the state’s interests will get a hearing. “You got the superstar in there, Nancy Pelosi. When you have Nancy Pelosi, that changes the rules of the game a little bit in terms of what’s possible,” he said. Pelosi stepped down as speaker last year, though she still wields enormous influence among Democrats.
California is likely to have more influence in the Senate, which will have 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats.
Newly-elected Sen.-elect Adam Schiff will join Sen. Alex Padilla, and though both are Democrats, individual senators tend to have some clout since it usually takes 60 votes to stop a filibuster.
“We made a lot of progress these last several years — water infrastructure, transportation infrastructure — working well with the federal government on the disaster response, and so many areas. We want to make sure that those efforts continue,” said Padilla before Wednesday’s meeting.
In the House, the California delegation could have at least 40 Democratic seats among its 52 House members. There was little apparent dissension among the lawmakers who attended the Newsom meeting Wednesday, said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove.
“One thing we did accomplish is get everybody on the same page,” Newsom said.
Regarding bipartisanship, Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, a Democrat who tends to gravitate toward the middle, said there are mutual California Republican interests on some issues.
“I think there are mutual interests in water and in some of the transportation projects, and so those areas will try to find where they can indicate willingness to provide bipartisan support,” Costa said.
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