LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� Vice President JD Vance on Friday accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass of encouraging violent immigration protests as he used his appearance in Los Angeles to rebut criticism from state and local officials that the Trump administration fueled the unrest by sending in federal officers.
Vance also referred to U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, the state鈥檚 first Latino senator, as 鈥淛ose Padilla,鈥� a week after the Democrat was by officers and handcuffed after speaking out during a Los Angeles news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on .
鈥淚 was hoping Jose Padilla would be here to ask a question,鈥� Vance said, in an apparent reference to the altercation at Noem鈥檚 event. 鈥淚 guess he decided not to show up because there wasn鈥檛 a theater. And that鈥檚 all it is.鈥�
鈥淭hey want to be able to go back to their far-left groups and to say, 鈥楲ook, me, I stood up against border enforcement. I stood up against Donald Trump,鈥欌�� Vance added.
A spokesperson for Padilla, Tess Oswald, noted in a social media post that Padilla and Vance were formerly colleagues in the Senate and said that Vance should know better. 鈥淗e should be more focused on demilitarizing our city than taking cheap shots,鈥� Oswald said.
Vance鈥檚 visit to Los Angeles to tour a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations calmed down in the city and a curfew was lifted this week. That followed over a week of sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of and looting that followed immigration raids across Southern California.
Trump鈥檚 dispatching of his top emissary to Los Angeles at a time of turmoil surrounding the Israel-Iran war and the U.S.鈥檚 future role in it signals the political importance Trump places on his hard-line immigration policies. Vance echoed the president's harsh rhetoric toward California Democrats as he sought to blame them for the protests in the city.
鈥淕avin Newsom and Karen Bass, by treating the city as a sanctuary city, have basically said that this is open season on federal law enforcement,鈥� Vance said after he toured federal immigration enforcement offices.
鈥淲hat happened here was a tragedy,鈥� Vance added. 鈥淵ou 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.鈥�
Newsom鈥檚 spokesperson Izzy Gardon said in a statement, 鈥淭he Vice President鈥檚 claim is categorically false. The governor has consistently condemned violence and has made his stance clear.鈥�
Speaking at City Hall, Bass said Vance was 鈥渟pewing lies and utter nonsense.鈥� She said hundreds of millions of dollars were wasted by the federal government on a 鈥渟tunt.鈥�
鈥淗ow dare you say that city officials encourage violence? We kept the peace,鈥� Bass said.
In a statement on X, Newsom responded to Vance's reference to 鈥淛ose Padilla,鈥� saying the comment was no accident.
Jose Padilla also is the name of a al-Qaida terrorism plotter during President George W. Bush's administration, who was sentenced to two decades in prison. Padilla was arrested in 2002 at Chicago鈥檚 O鈥橦are International Airport during the tense months after the 9/11 attacks and accused of the 鈥渄irty bomb鈥� mission. It later emerged through U.S. interrogation of other al-Qaida suspects that the 鈥渕ission鈥� was only a sketchy idea, and those claims never surfaced in the South Florida terrorism case.
Responding to the outrage, Taylor Van Kirk, a spokesperson for Vance, said of the vice president: 鈥淗e must have mixed up two people who have broken the law.鈥�
Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill Trump鈥檚 promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of , has against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed.
The friction in Los Angeles began June 6, 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 of roughly 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the second-largest U.S. city, home to 3.8 million people.
Trump has said that without the military's involvement, Los Angeles 鈥渨ould be a crime scene like we haven鈥檛 seen in years.鈥�
has the military intervention as the onset of a much broader effort by Trump to overturn political and cultural norms at the heart of the nation鈥檚 democracy.
Earlier Friday, Newsom urged Vance to visit victims of the deadly January wildfires while in Southern California and talk with Trump, who earlier this week suggested his feud with the governor might influence his consideration of $40 billion in federal wildfire aid for California. 鈥淚 hope we get that back on track,鈥� Newsom wrote on X. 鈥淲e are counting on you, Mr. Vice President.鈥�
Vance did not mention either request during his appearance on Friday.
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Associated Press writers Julie Watson and Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Tran Nguyen in Sacramento contributed to this report.
Michael R. Blood, The Associated Press
