Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, considering a 2020 presidential run, said Thursday that President Donald Trump has done "plenty of racist things" to divide the nation while failing to deliver on health care reform and other promises.
In an interview with The Associated Press, the two-term Democratic mayor who already has visited the important presidential election states of Iowa and New Hampshire said he intends to make a decision on his candidacy by March.
To oust the president in a 2020 campaign, Garcetti said his party needs to show Trump doesn't back up his words. He pointed to Trump's promise to deliver a better health care plan than President Barack Obama's model. "How's that going?" he asked.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti talks during an interview with the Associated Press in Los Angeles on Thursday Aug. 16, 2018. Garcetti, who already has visited the important presidential states of Iowa and New Hampshire, told The Associated Press he'll likely make a decision on his candidacy by March 2019. In a wide-ranging interview, the mayor touched on issues from the city's homelessness crisis to immigration. (AP PhotoRichard Vogel)
"We need to show this is not a strong man, this is a thin-skinned and ineffective person who isn't saying everything wrong, he's bringing up some good points, but he's not producing anything," Garcetti said. "And then the rest of the time he's dividing us and trying to take things away from us."
The mayor said that while "racism is something that lives in everybody," Trump "seems to be much more comfortable with his racism, letting it out."
"We do have a president, a commander in chief, who is using race to divide us. And not just race — immigration status, geography. He wants to divide us by these kind of essential categories, to point fingers," Garcetti said.
He stopped short of calling Trump a racist but said "he certainly has done plenty of racist things." Garcetti said it's important for the public to know if Trump used the N-word as alleged by fired White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.
In the wide-ranging interview, the mayor touched on issues from the city's homelessness crisis to immigration. He did not join some other Democrats in calling for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement but said its mission must be changed.
"We have political leadership that has given ICE this mission that is destructive to families, to economies and to even the safety on our streets," he said.
No candidate has ever ascended directly from a mayor's office to the presidency, but Garcetti has argued that the work of mayors is essentially the type of chief executive work a president does. And in his case, he's overseen a city that has a roughly trillion-dollar economy, behind only Tokyo and New York among world cities.
When asked about the characteristics a candidate would need to topple Trump in 2020, he appeared to describe himself in saying America needs someone not prone to theatrics and who listens more than speaks.
"President Trump is a great insulter. He's a pretty practiced bully. But I think American people don't want just somebody fighting with President Trump. They want somebody listening to them," he said.
"Average American people are just looking to connect with someone they trust. I don't think they trust Trump at the level that they did, even those who like him," he said.
Garcetti added he "can fire it up too," though he's known for a polished, mannerly disposition.
Strongly Democratic California has been a mainstay in the so-called Trump resistance, but Garcetti said Trump's tenure has amounted to more threats than any broad change in the way the city conducts business.
Should he run for president the expected crowded Democratic field could include fellow Californian Kamala Harris, a first-term U.S. senator and former state attorney general. Garcetti called her a dear friend and said what she does won't influence his decision.
AP Writer Michael Balsamo contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel this week briefed Biden administration officials on a plan to evacuate Palestinian civilians ahead of a potential operation in the southern Gaza city of Rafah aimed at rooting out Hamas militants, according to U.S. officials familiar with the talks.
The officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity to speak about the sensitive exchange, said that the plan detailed by the Israelis did not change the U.S. administration’s view that moving forward with an operation in Rafah would put too many innocent Palestinian civilians at risk.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to carry out a military operation in Rafah despite warnings from President Joe Biden and other western officials that doing so would result in more civilian deaths and worsen an already dire humanitarian crisis.
The Biden administration has said there could be consequences for Israel should it move forward with the operation without a credible plan to safeguard civilians.
“Absent such a plan, we can’t support a major military operation going into Rafah because the damage it would do is beyond what’s acceptable,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said late Friday at the Sedona Forum, an event in Arizona hosted by the McCain Institute.
Some 1.5 million Palestinians have sheltered in the southern Gaza city as the territory has been ravaged by the war that began on Oct. 7 after Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages.
The United Nations humanitarian aid agency on Friday said that hundreds of thousands of people would be “at imminent risk of death” if Israel moves forward with the Rafah assault. The border city is a critical entry point for humanitarian aid and is filled with displaced Palestinians, many in densely packed tent camps.
The officials added that the evacuation plan that the Israelis briefed was not finalized and both sides agreed to keep discussing the matter.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Friday that no “comprehensive” plan for a potential Rafah operation has been revealed by the Israelis to the White House. The operation, however, has been discussed during recent calls between Biden and Netanyahu as well as during recent virtual talks with top Israeli and U.S. national security officials.
“We want to make sure that those conversations continue because it is important to protect those Palestinian lives — those innocent lives,” Jean-Pierre said.
The revelation of Israel's continued push to carry out a Rafah operation came as CIA director William Burns arrived Friday in Egypt, where negotiators are trying to seal a cease-fire accord between Israel and Hamas.
Hamas is considering the latest proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release put forward by U.S., Egyptian and Qatari mediators, who are looking to avert the Rafah operation.
They have publicly pressed Hamas to accept the terms of the deal that would lead to an extended cease-fire and an exchange of Israeli hostages taken captive on Oct. 7 and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Hamas has said it will send a delegation to Cairo in the coming days for further discussions on the offer, though it has not specified when.
Israel, and its allies, have sought to increase pressure on Hamas on the hostage negotiation. Signaling that Israel continues to move forward with its planning for a Rafah operation could be a tactic to nudge the militants to finalize the deal.
Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israeli forces would enter Rafah, which Israel says is Hamas’ last stronghold, regardless of whether a truce-for-hostages deal is struck. His comments appeared to be meant to appease his nationalist governing partners, and it was not clear whether they would have any bearing on any emerging deal with Hamas.
Blinken visited the region, including Israel, this week and called the latest proposal “extraordinarily generous” and said “the time to act is now.”
In Arizona on Friday, Blinken repeated remarks he made earlier this week that "the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a cease-fire is Hamas.”
The Chahine family prepares to bury two adults and five boys and girls under the age of 16 after an overnight Israeli strike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Friday, May 3, 2024. An Israeli strike on the city of Rafah on the southern edge of the Gaza Strip killed several people, including children, hospital officials said Friday. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
FILE - Palestinians line up for free food during the ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Jan. 9, 2024. A top U.N. official said Friday, May 3, 2024, that hard-hit northern Gaza was now in “full-blown famine" after more than six months of war between Israel and Hamas and severe Israeli restrictions on food deliveries to the Palestinian territory. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali, File)
Palestinians rescue a woman survived after the Israeli bombardment on a residential building of Abu Alenan family in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, early Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ismael Abu Dayyah)
President Joe Biden walks across the South Lawn of the White House as he talks with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Thursday, May 2, 2024, in Washington, after returning from a trip to North Carolina. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
