Not surprisingly, former President Donald Trump came out swinging Friday as he helped open the California Republican Party Fall Convention in Anaheim, telling a packed room that the state is on the verge of anarchy thanks to Democratic leaders who are opening their arms to “prisoners, terrorists, mental patients.”
The Republican presidential front-runner lambasted California’s “sanctuary cities,” such as Los Angeles, as he decried what he called the fall of a once great state that offered promise to many.
“We will reverse the decline of America and we will end the desecration of your once great state, California,” Trump told the crowd. “This is not a great state anymore. This is a dumping ground. You’re a dumping ground. The world is being dumped into California — prisoners, terrorists, mental patients.”
He launched his standard bombs at President Joe Biden, referring to him as “corrupt,” while again repeating falsehoods that Biden only won California in the last election due to large-scale fraud involving mail-in ballots.
Trump insisted that despite the state’s overwhelmingly Democratic leadership, California is a state that “the right Republican” can carry in the next presidential election, invoking the names of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.
He sought to rile up the crowd at the Anaheim Marriott, telling them they were the “last line of defense” preventing the state from falling into “total anarchy.”
He called the state’s leaders weak on border and crime issues, earning cheers by suggesting that the recent rash of smash-and-grab robberies and other crimes would be halted immediately if offenders were shot on sight.
His remarks came two days after Trump skipped a GOP candidate debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
Trump was the first of four presidential hopefuls attending the state GOP convention.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott was scheduled to take part in a “fireside chat” with California Republican Party Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson Friday afternoon, according to Matt Gorman, the Scott campaign’s senior communications adviser.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is scheduled to speak at a dinner banquet at 7:30 p.m. Friday, while businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is set to speak at a luncheon banquet at noon Saturday.
Behind that glitz, however, there is a potential battle brewing over the state party’s platform.
Former Orange County supervisor and state senator John Moorlach is on the platform drafting committee, and he told City News Service there has been a lot of hashing back and forth over the past couple of months.
At one meeting, he said, “We were given over 100 pages of amendments.”
When someone announced there would be a break at 2, Moorlach raised his hand and asked, “Is that 2 a.m. or 2 p.m.? Because this is going to take all night.”
Then, “all of a sudden they come in with a one-pager,” Moorlach said. “Then, all of a sudden, it’s 5 o’clock and they’re saying we have to get out of this hotel room. So the committee eventually came up with this (draft) document that is now four pages instead of 31. Maybe that’s the answer, to keep it simple.”
Now, however, some party members are saying, “We don’t like that, let’s stick with the old one.”
Two issues that appear to be in dispute are the party’s stances on abortion and gay marriage.
Under “right to life,” the draft states, “We value protecting innocent life and want to see the number of abortions reduced. We support adoption as an alternative to abortion and call on lawmakers to reduce the bureaucratic burden placed on adoptive couples.”
Meanwhile, the current platform declares that marriage should be defined as a union between a man and woman, while the draft sidesteps that under a section titled “Family.”
The draft reads, “We support the family unit as the best environment for raising children, but most importantly affirm that a loving, safe home for all children should be our society’s top priority. Religious institutions play a pivotal role in strengthening both traditional marriages and families. Families should be protected and empowered to make decision that are consistent with their values, beliefs and faith.”
Orange County GOP Chairman Fred Whitaker said he is pushing for the party to just adopt the current platform so the focus can stay on the presidential candidates.
“We shouldn’t have platform fights in the middle of a presidential election,” Whitaker said.
Many party regulars are signing on to a letter saying, “We should readopt our platform and keep our party united,” Whitaker said. “I’m very optimistic the platform committee will in the end dump the draft and re-adopt the platform and have no floor fights on Sunday.
“If they come out of Saturday with a wonky platform, then Sunday will be mad and that will be bad for the party. If we do our work right it will all be behind the scenes and there will be nothing to give (reporters) much to talk about.”
Trump is the front-runner for the Republican nomination for president despite facing four criminal indictments. A New York civil fraud trial of the former president and his company is set to begin on Monday after an appeals panel lifted a temporary stay on the start of the trial.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said she plans to call Trump and his three adult children as witnesses at the trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Arthur Engoron, the trial court judge in the case, found on Tuesday Trump, his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and other defendants liable for fraudulently inflating the values of properties and other assets.
“I think it’s going to be a very exciting convention,” Whitaker said. “Obviously there’s the four presidential candidates attending, so attendance will be through the roof.”
Anaheim Police Department Sgt. Jon McClintock said city officials are prepared for all the extra traffic and expected activism.
“We handle large-scale events basically every week and we have a lot of history of that,” McClintock said. “We’re well prepared and ready to go. Our mission is to provide a safe place for the attendees, and anyone exercising their First Amendment rights that we provide a safe place for that as well.
“We’re working with our state and federal partners and we’ll have a significant amount of staffing dedicated to the event.”
As expected, crowds of Trump supporters and Democrats amassed outside the venue Friday, and there were some brief clashes among individuals in those groups. But there were no reports of major disturbances.