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Gavin Newsom and Karen Bass Are Still Really Bad at This

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 20, 2025 4:00 PM

California Democrats continue to wrack up losses when it comes to the Los Angeles riots that took place earlier this month in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids of criminal illegal immigrants. Throughout it all, state and local Democrats, namely Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, have dismissed the violence and focused on blaming President Donald Trump, just as Democrats in Congress have done, especially Rep. Maxine Waters, whose district includes parts of LA. As the weeks drag on, so do their attitudes.

Not only has been Newsom been grumbling over social media, but as Townhall has been covering, he and California Attorney General Rob Bonta took the Trump administration to court over the president sending in the National Guard. Newsom filed an emergency appeal, which he wasn't granted, and then although a judge did find for him, as Newsom was very quick to celebrate, an appeals court not long after delayed that order. The Trump administration emerged victorious on Thursday night in a unanimous decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, as Matt has been covering.

Not only did Newsom prematurely celebrate last week, when speaking to the press and sharing such clips of himself, but over X this week as well. Over at our sister site of Twitchy, Doug P. covered one of Newsom's many posts on the matter and the mockery it received.

Even as the judges found in favor of the Trump administration, Newsom still oddly behaved over X as if he was claiming a win of sorts. "Donald Trump is not a king and not above the law," Newsom posted. It's been a common refrain for Democrats to claim such a phrase, when it applies to Trump, but not so much when it comes to their own. Democrats have thrown a fuss, for instance, about the arrest of Milwaukee Judge Hannah Dugan, who allegedly hid an illegal immigrant in her chambers, as well as Sen. Alex Padilla (D-CA) and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, when they were briefly detained last week and earlier this week. Both have taken issue with the Trump administration's immigration enforcement, and then played the victim when having to face the consequences.

"Tonight, the court rightly rejected Trump’s claim that he can do whatever he wants with the National Guard and not have to explain himself to a court," his post continued. "We will not let this authoritarian use of military soldiers against citizens go unchecked."

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How did Newsom come to making such a claim. Here's how CalMatters framed the case, which may explain it:

In court earlier this week, attorneys from the Trump administration argued the president’s deployment was “unreviewable” by courts. 

The appeals court judges disagreed that the decision was beyond the reach of the judicial branch, but found the president had a legitimate interest in protecting federal employees when he called up the troops. 

“The undisputed facts demonstrate that before the deployment of the National Guard, protesters ‘pinned down’ several federal officers and threw ‘concrete chunks, bottles of liquid and other objects’ at the officers.”

Newsom put out yet another post with that same statement, which earned thousands of replies in the hours it's been up, just as the one above did. His office also posted such a statement on the website. 

As for how the case will go, CalMatters has more on what future paths it could take. 

And, even though Senior District Judge Charles Breyer found for Newsom last week before the appeals court quickly stayed that decision, he may not do so this time around:

What happens next could take one of several turns. On Friday a lower court judge, Charles Breyer, will hold a hearing on whether to return the troops to Newsom through a preliminary injunction. Breyer last week issued an order that would have temporarily halted Trump’s deployment, but the 9th Circuit blocked it.

Now, the battle over whether federal troops can remain in Los Angeles is operating on three parallel tracks — the case the 9th Circuit decided today, which can be appealed; Friday’s hearing on the preliminary injunction; and the full merits of the case that would be argued through a prolonged trial.

For Newsom’s legal team to prevail in Friday’s hearing, they’ll have to clear a higher threshold of scrutiny than they did when they initially won back the National Guard last week, albeit for a few hours. That’s because anyone seeking a preliminary injunction must demonstrate that the merits of their arguments will likely prevail in the full trial.

The appeals court’s decision could influence Breyer’s thinking, legal thinkers said, even if he initially signalled support for the Newsom administration’s arguments.

“It’s kind of hard to disentangle the two processes when we think about how judge Breyer will be weighing” the preliminary injunction hearing, because a lot of that’s going to be informed by what these higher level courts decide,” said Christopher Mirasola, an assistant law professor at the University of Houston Law Center.

No matter what Breyer does after Friday, it’ll likely quickly go back to the appeals court. And if the appeals court keeps halting the lower court’s orders, Trump keeps the National Guard for the duration of the lower court’s full trial.

Would the Newsom team try to appeal the injunction with the Supreme Court?

On one hand, “why not shoot your shot when you got the opportunity, right?” asked Mirasola rhetorically.  But there’s a chance the high court comes back with such a strong opinion favoring the Trump administration that it could “substantively affect how judge Breyer treats the merits of the case.”

The piece concludes with University of Houston Law Center Professor Christopher Mirasola cautioed how the U.S. Supreme Court could favor the Trump administration. 

Since that ruling, Breyer also ruled that he will put off additional rulings, though. "U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer put off issuing any additional rulings and instead asked for briefings from both sides on whether the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil, is being violated in Los Angeles," the Associated Press reported on Friday afternoon. 

Not long after such a decision came in on late Thursday night, Bass shared a clip of her local media appearance on Fox 11. She's been doing plenty of those since the early days of the mayhem. Doug P. also covered such a clip for Twitchy.

During such an appearance she not only spoke out against the Trump administration, but claimed to do so from a place speaking up for the guardsmen. "We need to think about the National Guard that is federalized. We need to think about the Marines. You know, those are young women and men who are on this deployment, brought away from their homes, their families, their education. And to me it's like using them as props! Take them away from their school, take them away from their employment to do this deployment that is not needed is not only cruel but it's impacting their families too!" Bass lamented. Perhaps if she had done a better job in handling the riots, Trump wouldn't have felt such a need to send in the National Guard.

She then spoke about Father's Day, as she did on Sunday to further grumble about the situation, which Sarah covered at the time. "I think on Father's Day, the children that were waiting for their fathers to come home, that they have missing fathers because they were detained! The people that were here legally, that showed up for their immigration appointment that's required every year, and they get detained! This chaos needs to stop and it can only stop out of the White House!"

It's always someone else's fault with these Democrats. Again, it should have been on Newsom and Bass to put out the fires--literal and figurative ones--except they chose to fan the flames. 

Bass has received a healthy ratio for posting the video clip to her X account. It was the same case with her Father's Day post. 

Newsom is term-limited as governor, though he may actually run for president in 2028. Los Angeles is also a rather leftist city, though it's worth wondering if even those residents will wake up. There's still many battleground districts in California for the 2026 midterms, though, and districts across the entire country that may wake up and realize they don't want such chaos coming for them while elected officials dismiss the violence and focus on blaming Trump.