California AG Rob Bonta Discusses Lawsuits Against Trump Regime
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How is the Trump regime affecting museums in the US?
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 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 uh a hundred and hundreds of non-profits in new york for example are having cuts theater dance museums galleries you know i i gave a speech about this yesterday where i was telling the audience i'm like i 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 mightiest mighty, like it's just cruelty for the sake of cruelty. And of course we can 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.C., where they were removing the artifacts for the African-American History Museum there. Play this.
Some artifacts are already being removed. 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 would be returned.
One precious and most historic book the first history of the Negro race that was written by Reverend George Washington Williams
in 1880 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 improper ideology they're going after museums let's bring in california's attorney general ron bata
Attorney General Bonta, 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?
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 our preliminary injunction yesterday that enjoined stock 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.
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