LA protests reside: Trump claims ‘Newscum’ and mayor ‘paid agitators’ armed with bricks to throw at police

Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, told CNN that it’s “not free speech” when protesters in Los Angeles “start setting things on fire.”

“You can’t defend when people start setting things on fire or they start damaging buildings or going after members of law enforcement. That’s not free speech.

That is not that is not peaceful protests. And I’m very supportive of immigration as well, too. We have to find a way forward. The two must be true at the same time,” he said.

Watch Fetterman’s remarks here:

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, took a jab at Fetterman, telling CNN: “If Senator Fetterman or anybody else is concerned with law and order, we should be looking at one of the most law breaking agencies and administrations that we’ve seen in the United States,” seemingly referring to ICE under the Trump administration.

Watch Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks here:

White House aide and anti-immigration hardliner Stephen Miller reportedly lit the fuse for protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles.

He pressed ICE officials to “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Miller told federal agents to raid Home Depot parking lots and 7-Eleven convenience stores, according to the Journal.

Read more from Alex Woodward.

ABC News is parting ways with correspondent and anchor Terry Moran just days after he posted a screed on X calling Donald Trump and his deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller “world-class haters.”

Justin Baragona reports.

Richard Hall writes:

Pete Hegseth’s first congressional hearing as Defense Secretary was supposed to focus on budgetary matters, but the former soldier was not going to miss an opportunity to strike fear into the hearts of America’s enemies — in this case, a few hundred protesters in Los Angeles.

In his opening statement to the House Appropriations subcommittee, Hegseth delivered a made-for-Hollywood monologue about the U.S. military’s new “warrior ethos,” one that is focused squarely on “war fighting” and “lethality.”

So deadly are the soldiers under his command that the word “soldier” no longer suffices. In Hegseth’s Department of Defense, they are “war fighters” — a term he used repeatedly, implying an army of perpetually deployed and exhausted Rambo figures always searching for targets to shoot.

As he spoke, some 700 of these deadly war fighters had already left 29 Palms Marine base in the Southern California desert and were getting ready for their first deployment under his command.

Their destination? The deadly war zone of Los Angeles. Their target? The flag-waving street protesters who have wrought havoc on a few city blocks, prompting desperate calls for help from no one in the state.

Continue reading…

California Senator Adam Schiff reiterates the warning from his Democratic colleagues in the House: “What Trump does in Los Angeles could become the authoritarian blueprint elsewhere in the country.”

Business owners in the Little Tokyo neighborhood – where some of the most intense clashes between police and protesters occurred late on Monday – were washing graffiti off storefront windows and sweeping up litter on Tuesday.

Every building on Little Tokyo’s main streets was hit with graffiti, with the exception of a public defender’s office that stood untouched.

A store owner who did not want to give her name, fearing reprisals, said it was frustrating that the neighborhood full of immigrants was paying the price of the protests against federal immigration agents.

Frank Chavez, 53, manager of an office building in the neighborhood, was sweeping glass shards from an entrance door that had been shattered after midnight by a young masked man wielding a skateboard, according to security video that Chavez showed a Reuters reporter.

“I agree with what the protesters are defending – they’re standing up for the Latino community,” Chavez said. “But there are a few carrying out vandalism and violence, and that must be stopped.”

Chavez and other business owners said they did not support the LA immigration raids and felt Trump’s response to the protests was only fanning the flames.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday criticized Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum for comments that she said encouraged violence at protests in Los Angeles, drawing a rebuke from the Mexican leader, who denied the claims.

At a press conference on Monday, Sheinbaum criticized violent acts during the protests against immigration raids and asked U.S. authorities to respect the rule of law while policing migration.

“Claudia Sheinbaum came out and encouraged more protests in L.A., and I condemn her for that,” Noem told reporters at the White House.

“She should not be encouraging violent protests that are going on,” Noem added. “People are allowed to peacefully protest. But the violence that we’re seeing is not acceptable, and it’s not going to happen in America.”

In a post on X, Sheinbaum said Noem “mistakenly mentioned” that she encouraged violent protests, which was “absolutely false.” Sheinbaum then shared a video of her original comments on Monday.

“Here is my statement from yesterday, in which I clearly condemn violent demonstrations. We have always been against them, and even more so now in the high office I hold,” Sheinbaum said.

The Mexican leader, whose government is in the middle of trade negotiations with the Trump administration, said she was certain the “misunderstanding will be cleared up.”