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- [00:01]
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- [00:30]
Host
The Trump regime is attacking the museums. Right here in Los Angeles, where I live. They're going after the Japanese American museum in Washington, D.C. they're going after the African American Smithsonian Museum throughout California. They're going after funding for museums and libraries. It's not just unique to California or D.C. we've seen Attorney generals throughout the country, whether it's been in Arizona, whether it's been wherever, I mean, Michigan, you name it. The Trump regime is shutting down, like, or taking things away from museums, not giving funding for critical things. They're in New York, they're going after cultural institutions. Hundreds of nonprofits in New York, for example, are having cuts. Theater, dance, museums, galleries. You know, I gave a speech about this yesterday when, where I was telling the audience, I'm like, I, I don't want to be the bad guys. Like, why are we just doing as a country? I know it's not we the Midas mighty. Like, it's just cruelty for the sake of cruelty. And of course, we could talk about all the other things, disappearing migrants and just the horrific, just gutting of Medicaid, the treatment of veterans and the firing of veterans. But like, also, it's like you're going into museums, you're getting rid of artifacts, you're stopping the funding. Why? Just the cruelty is the point. This is what I saw this out of Washington D. Where they were removing the artifacts for the African American History Museum there. Play this.
- [02:01]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
Some artifacts are already being removed.
- [02:04]
Reverend Amos Brown
Recent executive orders signed by President Trump aimed at removing what he called improper ideology could already be affecting the African American History Museum. Civil rights activist and pastor Reverend Amos Brown says he was recently notified two of the artifacts he loaned to the museum will be returned.
- [02:20]
Host
One precious and most historic book, the first history of the Negro race, that was written by Reverend George Washington Williams in 1880.
- [02:34]
Reverend Amos Brown
The other, a Bible from when he went to demonstrations with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. And Jesse Jackson. Brown says that he lent the artifacts to the Smithsonian in 2016. They would always give him the option of donating the books permanently or renewing the loan. But this time he wasn't asked.
- [02:50]
Host
Improper ideology. They're going after museums. Let's bring in California's Attorney General, Ron Bata. Attorney General Banta, you've filed lawsuits here in California on this issue, and you've joined with attorney generals on many other issues, which we'll discuss. But you won two preliminary injunctions on Trump's attack on museums and education institutions in California. Can you talk about those cases and the significance of the order?
- [03:19]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
Absolutely. And first, I'm grateful that Democratic attorneys general across the nation are working together to make sure that we have a president who follows the law and complies with the Constitution. Unfortunately, we have a president who is acting in a way that's been unacceptable and abnormal. He's violated the law at a very fast pace, high volume, high speed of actions. And we've brought 19 lawsuits in 15 weeks, more than one a week. And yesterday, within a matter of hours, we got two preliminary injunctions ordered by courts stopping some of the unlawful conduct. One is the case you were mentioning, where the president sought to withhold already congressionally appropriated funding for museums, for libraries, for other agencies, critical and essential services. And in a separate case, we got a preliminary injunction yesterday that enjoined stop prevented the president from withholding critical COVID 19 funding that went to schools to address some of the challenges that arose out of COVID 19, like learning loss and mental health issues, also technological capacity. That funding was also congressionally appropriated, and the president does not have the right to stop it from being sent to the states after it's already been appropriated. So some good wins yesterday. And that's been our hallmark so far. We've been winning our cases, broadly speaking, getting injunctions, temporary restraining orders, stopping the president from his unconstitutional and unlawful activity.
- [04:54]
Host
He joined with Democratic attorney generals across the country also to file a lawsuit against Donald Trump and RFK Jr. Gutting health and Human Services. And, you know, I saw the list of the things that were being dismantled by Trump and RFK. You know, everything from preventing the first responders in 911 to have the full access that they needed to people on call and appropriate cancer diagnoses to, you know, you listed them all in the lawsuit. You know, people who work in mining, you know, were not being able to get healthcare services, very specific stuff. And, you know, it's not a Republican or a Democrat thing. I mean, like, this stuff is literally going to be, like, killing us, result in people dying. I just feel like we're back to the COVID years again, where they didn't give a crap about death. And it's like, what are we talking about here? Talk to us about that lawsuit.
- [05:54]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
While not surprising, unfortunately always shocking when you think about it as a human being and the common sense, science based, evidence based, data driven steps that we've taken to save lives, extend life, improve people's health. We're a long way away from waste, fraud and abuse here. These are the opposite of waste, fraud and abuse. These are core essential, critical services that, as you rightfully say, save people's lives. And there's this ongoing attempt to dismantle critical agencies at the Education Department, Health and Human Services and the critical services that they provide. They're dismantling them, they're firing employees, they're pulling away resources and critical services. And so it's hard to understand the point you appropriately propose that maybe cruelty is the point. It's certainly the impact and the outcome. And governments provide critical essential services and they're taking them away and stripping them away, including in the health and human services area where people's lives are at risk because of these cuts.
- [07:04]
Host
I'm taking these issues one by one. I started with the museums. We talk about health and human services. Then you bring up Department of Education. In the past week, the Department of Education said they were going to cut between a billion and $2 billion in mental health funding. And so after the MAGA, Republicans say the sole reason why there are school shootings, right? They always say it's only because of mental health, not the guns. Okay, so let's do mental health funding and let's also address the guns which I know you as an Attorney General are focused on. We'll get there in a second. But let's just, let's just take it mental health, okay? They're going after mental health services and getting rid of that in school. And I know you just spoke recently at a mental health symposium or spoke on the issue recently at the Hoover Institute. And so I know it's a very important issue to you. It's a very important, it is a, an important issue. Cruelty's the point. It seems.
- [08:05]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
Again, we are massively under invested when it comes to mental health. We need to do more people need services yesterday, they need access. We have high levels of anxiety and depression and other trauma. And we need trauma informed care. And these cutbacks are absolutely devastating. You're supposed to, as a government, you're supposed to invest in the services and programs that meet the need, that meet the demand. And the demand for mental health services is through the roof. And so we need to be Investing in doing more, not cutting back and pulling back. And so again, the irony you point out, or the hypocrisy is very appropriate when you talk about gun violence. Republicans like to say, guns don't kill people, people kill people, and mental health is the issue. And then you say, what are you doing about mental health? And then you got crickets. And that's the truth of the hypocrisy. But it would, it would be funny if it weren't so tragic and dangerous and people's lives are at risk, their health is at risk. And so it's hard to understand the end game here of destroying critical services from the federal government. But we are seeing the human devastation. And unfortunately, it will only continue if these unlawful and cruel actions continue.
- [09:28]
Host
You know, sometimes when I cover this, it feels like whack a mole, you know, because you have all the things that we discussed. And then it's like, oh, then Donald Trump's offending Catholics by posting AI images of himself as the Pope, you know, right as Pope Francis passed away and everyone's in mourning. Like, you know, you're like, do I, do I, do I follow that one? You know, or he'll go, you know, we need a tariff. Movies. Like, what do you, what do you even mean tariffing movies? But a lot of that's distraction. It doesn't mean necessarily that we don't cover it, but we gotta, you know, we have to stay focused on these things. And I'm sure, as Attorney General of now, California is the fourth largest economy in the world. There are things that you see that you're probably like, stop with these distractions. We need to focus on this, this and this. I wish there was more media attention on this. So we have an audience of now 5 million subscribers. What issue or issues do you think we need to be focused on more? That that's not getting enough attention from you as the top law enforcement officer.
- [10:30]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
In California, you know, I'll first say that you're right. There's this flood the zone approach, shock and awe, you know, high volume, high speed, and it is easy to be distracted. Unfortunately, many of these actions are dangerous and devastating, and a high number of them are unlawful. Our North Star as the attorneys general, mine as the attorney general for the largest state department of justice in the nation, is identifying what is unlawful. When the president does something that is unlawful and harms California, that's when we act. And we don't necessarily get to set the agenda on that. We are responding to what he does. It's pretty Simple. If Trump breaks the law, we sue him. If he doesn't break the law, we don't, because there's nothing to sue him on. And this isn't about we can't go to court with political grievance or ideological or policy difference. We'll get thrown out of court immediately. So we go to court when he breaks the law. And he's had patterns of breaking the law here. He violates the separation of powers quite regularly. He wants to usurp and trespass on legislative authority, Congress's authority, particularly the power of the purse, the power to appropriate and spend. He has done that many times. I think focusing on that attempt to violate the Constitution and infringe upon a co equal branch of governments authority is something to keep an eye on. He's also gone after rights and freedoms, including on day one, January 20, hours after he raised his hand and swore to uphold the US Constitution, he went and violated it by issuing an executive order that sought to strike down and revoke birthright citizenship, a right that is right there in black and white in the 14th Amendment of the U.S. constitution, the citizenship clause. If you're born on American soil, you're a U.S. citizen, period, full stop. Doesn't matter with the immigration status or citizenship statuses of your parents. So all of these cases, 19 is a lot, but they really break down into two major categories. Either the President is trying to strip away someone's constitutional or other legally protected rights, or he's trying to withhold critical federal funding in California's case, to the tune of over $168 billion that he tried to revoke and withhold. That we, through our actions have continued to make flow.
- [12:51]
Host
The big oral argument on the birthright citizenship. Citizenship case is coming up on May 15th. Right. The new Jersey Attorney General, is he going to be the one making that argument? How do you pick who gets the oral argument? I mean, I'm sure. Do you get an oral argument coming soon? We're the fourth largest state by gdp. Why are we giving it to Jersey?
- [13:15]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
Yeah, I will say I am not arguing this case because I want to win this case. And so we have the New Jersey Solicitor General who is outstanding and we have the utmost confidence in. It's the person in the New Jersey Attorney General's office whose specialty is appellate advocacy, who writes incredible appellate briefs for the US Supreme Court and the circuit courts and other appellate courts, and also can argue with great persuasion and skill. So we're confident in our advocate, we're confident in our case. The case is about the issue of a related and critical issue in the case, but not the actual substance of the constitutional right of birthright citizenship. It's about national injunctions and whether a group of states who go to a court can get a, an order from the court and injunction that applies throughout the whole nation as opposed to in their states. And this is a great case for us to be in front of the U.S. supreme Court on because this is about a U.S. constitutional right. And constitutional rights belong to all in the United States. They either apply to all of us or they apply to none of us. They don't apply to the people in blue states, but not the people in red states. So we think a national injunction is, is very appropriate in this case and we're looking forward to the argument and being able to make a compelling and persuasive case to the U.S. supreme Court.
- [14:42]
Host
Well, I remember during former President Biden's administration that a lot of these MAGA attorneys would go right to the Northern District of Texas, get nationwide injunctions that took away rights and freedoms that, or took away things like student debt relief and things like that. So they were, they were perfectly happy then. But now when it comes to protecting a constitutional right of birthright citizenship, they go foul. We don't want that. So, you know, we'd love to have you back on Attorney General Bonta to discuss with us after the case. I'd love to have a look back. So let us know there. And I think we covered a lot. Anything else you wanted to say before we go? It's first time on the Myster Network.
- [15:25]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
Yeah, I'm honored and hopefully not the last. Grateful to have the opportunity to join you and talk to your amazing followers and audience. And one thing I do want to say to your point about the Republican attorneys general, they haven't filed one lawsuit. Given all of these unlawful actions that hurt their people, that hurt their constituents, that strip away their constitutional rights and other federal rights, that pull away millions and billions of dollars of already congressionally appropriated funding to their states. They're sitting on their hands and saying this is fine. Letting it happen. Meanwhile, Speaker Johnson and the Republicans in Congress are doing the same thing. Letting the President run roughshod over their, over their co equal branch of government while they're asleep at the wheel. And we need people with backbone and spine who stand up for the rule of law and for rights and freedoms of Americans and to uphold the Constitution. And we are not getting that, nor do we expect that from Republican AGs or the Republican Congress. But Democratic AGS are in the house. And we believe we're the first and last line of defense when it comes to these unlawful attacks on Americans. And we are not backing down. We are not slowing down. We are immovable and unapologetic in our commitment to each and every time the President of the United States of America breaks the law, we will take him to court to stop him and hold him accountable.
- [16:46]
Host
California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Thank you so much, Attorney General.
- [16:51]
Attorney General Rob Bonta
Honored to be with you. Thanks for having me, everybody.
- [16:53]
Host
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