Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the nation's capital over the weekend to meet with President Trump to discuss "ways to shield California from the administration's policies.
Newsom met first with fellow Democrats at a National Governors Assn. conference where the leaders discussed "strategies on expanding access to healthcare and strengthening environmental protections."
“I don’t desire …. to wake up every day and go back and forth with the administration,” Newsom said Sunday. “However, we will defend ourselves and we will defend the people when we feel we are being harmed or treated unfairly or targeted.”
“I’m not going to let that get in the way of the thing that matters to me most and that’s protecting the American people, regardless of where they live, in California or in Kansas,” Newsom later said at a black-tie dinner Trump hosted at the White House Sunday. “I feel a deep obligation to rise above that.”
Gov. Newsom and President Trump have been battling back and forth over the money spent on the bullet train with Trump demanding California pay back the $3.5 billion.
However, Newsom was more interested in discussing ways to reach common ground on disaster relief.
The democratic governor has openly chewed at the President for declaring a national emergency at the border and criticized him as a "climate change denier."
On Sunday, Newsom met with Peter Gaynor, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to discuss recovery efforts for the fires. Newsom is urging FEMA to cover the entire cost of cleaning up the cities devastated by the fires.
Read more at the LA Times.
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