Rob Bonta
speaker
583 appearances
22 recordings
7 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard 27 Aug
Rob Bonta’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 19 in all, peaking in Apr 2026 with 6.
Appearances
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, you know, 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.
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. 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 and doing more, not cutting back and pulling back. And so, again, you know, 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've got crickets. And that's the truth of the hypocrisy. But 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 endgame 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.
I'll first say that you're right. There's this flood the zone approach, shock and awe, 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 with 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.
um he has done that many times um i think focusing on that attempt to violate the constitution and infringe upon a co-equal branch of government's authority is something to keep an eye on he's also gone after rights and freedoms including on day one january 20th you know hours after he raised his hand and swore to uphold the u.s 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 US Constitution, the Citizenship Clause. If you're born on American soil, your US citizen period, full stop, doesn't matter what the immigration status or citizenship status is of your 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.
Yeah, I will say I am not arguing this case because I wanna win this case. And so so we have the New Jersey solicitor general who is outstanding and we have the most 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 U.S.
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
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 in their states and This is a great case for us to be in front of the US Supreme Court on because this is about a US 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 to the people in blue states, but not the people in red states. So we think a national injunction 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 US Supreme Court.
I'm honored and hopefully not the last. I'm 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 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.
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