California Attorney General Rob Bonta on New Lawsuit Against Trump Administration

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0:27Michael Popok:Way fair, every style, every home. I'm Serena Williams, and I'm healthier on Roe. I've lost 34 pounds in a year with GLP-1's diet and exercise. On Roe, you can access GLP-1 options, including the first FDA-approved GLP-1 pill for weight loss. Go to roe.co slash journey to see if you qualify. 14 to 20 % average weight loss in one year in non-diabetics with obesity or overweight with a weight-related medical condition versus 2.2 % to 3.1 % in placebo arm. Rx only. To stay informed about serious side effects, go to roe.co slash safety. Welcome to a special edition of Legal AF. As we've said time and time again, it is the attorneys general, primarily the Democratic attorneys general, who are the first responders who are running into a burning building of our rule of law and trying to save us.

1:19Michael Popok:And whenever something goes awry, like for instance, in the shutdown, when Donald Trump decides to make a political football out of 40 million plus people, children, babies, elderly, disabled, who would be receiving and need to receive supplemental nourishment assistance plan payments totaling$8 billion starting on November 1. And instead, Donald Trump is using that and holding it hostage through his Department of Agriculture, of all things, in order to make the Democrats look bad in the shutdown. It is the attorneys general who run to the rescue. And today they filed in the district of Massachusetts, 23 of them led by California and Massachusetts.

2:08Michael Popok:They filed this emergency complaint, temporary restraining order. We got the judge, we got the hearing this week. And for our audience, we've got Attorney General Rob Bonta of California to talk about the new filing. Welcome Attorney General Bonta. An honor to be with you once again, Michael. Thanks for having me. Always. As people may know, we were together and briefing the audience on No King's Day as Donald Trump threatened or did shoot live ordinance over the five when you and I were in San Diego, right near Camp Pendleton. And you talked then so eloquently about the three Cs, and we've stolen it from you, and we've repeated it frequently on the MinusBitch Network and Legal AF of courts, crowds, and courage.

2:51Michael Popok:And you've got it all here. Talk to our audience. Brief them about what is the SNAP program? Why did you spring into action? And then we'll talk about the logistics of the case that's been filed in Massachusetts with a hearing this coming Thursday. Sounds great. The SNAP program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also commonly known to and referred to as food stamps, is our federal food assistance program for folks who are hungry, who are in need. Some of our most vulnerable community members, our children, our seniors, our disabled, who rely on it. And this is one of the great things that government does.

3:26It helps feed the hungry and provide a safety net of protection and health for those in need. And Trump unlawfully decided to withhold the SNAP funding during the government shutdown for the month of November. It's about$8 billion nationwide,$1.1 billion to California. It's about 41 million Americans who will be deprived of their food assistance programs funding. 1.1 billion in California. And these are the folks who really need it. And so I just want to say that I've always believed that societies should be judged on how they treat the most vulnerable. And on that score, Trump gets an F. He is going out of his way to hurt and harm the most vulnerable in our country for a political purpose, to use it as a political bludgeon, a cudgel, to blame the Democrats, to put up on the website that the Senate Democrats created this problem.

4:33He created this problem. The law requires him to pay the funding. When there is a contingency fund in the SNAP program, as there is here, we think there's about five to six billion dollars in it. The law, the SNAP Act, and the SNAP statutory framework says that that money shall be used. and contingency funds like reserve funds for any budget are supposed to be for times just like this emergencies exigencies times when you need the funding and it's required to be spent so instead of spending it he's claiming that the quote well is dry end quote even though the money is there to be spent five to six billion dollars and so we're demanding that that money be spent on the people who need it and so we filed in the district of massachusetts today we also at the same time simultaneously applied for a temporary restraining order.

5:21We have a hearing in two days. We hope to get an immediate ruling that will block the unlawful action and ensure that the SNAP funding flows. We have two claims based on the Administrative Procedures Act, one that this action by the Trump administration withholding the funding in the contingency fund is contrary to law and also that it's arbitrary and capricious. In prior government shutdowns, the contingency fund was drawn on and was used to pay SNAP benefits to Americans in need. So we believe we have a strong case.

5:51Michael Popok:Yeah, well, your case is very strong. Let's just talk from arbitrary and capricious. Let's just talk about the ever-evolving, morphing position of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. You've got a September 30th report, a lapse of funding plan, which is no longer up on the website for the USDA, They've been replaced with, ha ha, blame the Democrats for babies, children, and old people who will die effectively. But there was a lapse of funding plan that said out loud that there was an intent to continue the plan. There was$6 billion in funds. Don't worry, states. So, you know, you don't have to worry about planning around it.

6:32Michael Popok:We will fund you. They said a similar thing on the 10th of October. And then all of a sudden around about four or five days ago, it became, no, there's no funding. There won't be any funding. Blame the Democrats. Is that part of your arbitrary and capricious attack? Yes. They reaffirmed what the practice has always been, what the law requires, that the contingency fund should be used in times like this, like a government shutdown as recently as September 30th and October 1st. And then twice in October, they stated that, you know, they reversed course, complete 180 degree turnabout without any explanation or reason, because there is no explanation or reason.

7:14It's just pure, staggering hypocrisy. And there's no explanation for it except for cruelty and very dangerous and disgusting political gamesmanship.

7:23Michael Popok:And look at the, and A.G. Bonta, look at the insult and injury to almost the same population. The Democrats are trying to have a commitment that 22 million Americans, many of the same type of Americans that are at or below the poverty line, are assured of getting health care through a tax deduction that would just need to be extended. We're not talking about illegal immigrants. We're not talking about Trenda Aragua. We're talking about Americans. Everything that you and I are going to talk about on this video is talking about Americans that Donald Trump is attacking and turning his back on. So that same group, now many of them, up to 40 million, also have food stamps, SNAP, other types of assistance that Donald Trump is denying them as well.

8:14Michael Popok:While, let's look what he's doing in the split screen. we have a split screen but let's look at the split screen between what the democratic attorneys general are doing and what the president of the united states is doing is he is he in the is he in the white house trying to solve this problem working with democrats to open the government no he's abroad again for the second time in about two weeks going to asia to try to fix all the problems that he created a bull in a china shop and wrecking our global economy and our relationships So he's got to go over there for more pomp and circumstance, like Marie Antoinette, right?

8:49Michael Popok:Literally, he is the modern incarnation of Marie Antoinette. Let them eat cake while they starve and while I go dine with the new Chinese Japanese prime minister. And all that he seems to be concerned about is building his golden ballroom and tearing down a third of the White House and its history. So he's doing that during the shutdown. Now, there seems to be enough money to fly Air Force One. There seems to be enough money to continue to demolish the people's house. What has he done to help the American people who are suffering and crushed under the weight of the Trump economy? He's uninterested.

9:29He cares about themselves. He doesn't care about Americans. He doesn't care about the people that government is built to serve, the ones who are struggling the most, who are the most vulnerable. That's why government exists, to provide that social safety net, to provide health care, because everyone should have high quality, affordable health care, to provide food, because no one in the richest country in the history of the world should go hungry or die of starvation. And that's what these programs do. So instead of working to end the government shutdown, working to get Americans just continue the health care that they've already had without massive spikes in their premiums or working to make sure that folks have food on their table, especially, you know, in November, as people are going to sit down for Thanksgiving meals.

10:12Those the poor folks who rely on food stamps on SNAP to have food will not have it. And meanwhile, he's working on his ballroom.

10:19Michael Popok:And he's cut out all the other social safety nets. Food banks don't have money. He's cut other state funding, continuing to destroy the relationship between the federal government and the states and the people, by extension, with federal funding. So you guys are scrambling with limited money. You're like the boy at the dike trying to plug holes that he's created. created he's created and meanwhile prices spiking he said he's going to lower costs on day one he imposed tariffs against all of our trading over 200 plus trading partners we're in washington dc before the united states supreme court next week to argue that his tariffs are what they are unlawful um and he should he had no authority to to issue them so he's raising prices he's uh pulling away the social service safety net he's making sure uh ensuring that our most vulnerable go hungry or that they don't have health care as he built his ballroom and jets around overseas.

11:16Michael Popok:Should be a recipe for disaster at the midterms. And I know your state is working very, very hard. I did a video. I've never in my life, and I've been around almost as long as your governor, I've never seen a political figure tell his constituency, don't send any more money. We have enough about Prop 50 and to get it passed where you guys have just wiped the floor with the opposition, the opposition group, the no vote, to try to get five new seats approved with a new map in California. It just goes, it's just a testament to what the Democrats stand for, what leaders like your boss and you stand for in trying to protect America.

12:03Michael Popok:You want to talk for a minute about, I learned on the way into the interview that we have, you've been assigned to Judge Talwani. She's no stranger to the Trump administration. She's made a number of rulings about funding, about immigration policy. She's not afraid to oppose the Trump administration. She's now dealing with some recent Supreme Court decisions that she and you are going to have to navigate through. But just to give our audience a little bit of taste of this, she was appointed by Obama. She was confirmed, A.G. Bonta, 94-0 by the Senate. Remember those days when federal judges were not attacked as being partisan hacks by the occupant of the White House?

12:48Amazing. Bring those days back. We need those. The young voters and Americans will be shocked to hear that those days ever existed, Michael. Are you going to be flying into Massachusetts us for the hearing on Thursday? I won't be there on Thursday. I'll leave it to my crack team to handle it. I'll be heading to DC for the US Supreme Court argument on tariffs though.

13:11Michael Popok:Oh, you're going to be there for that. Great. That's great. Well, we're actually, as long as we're here, we'll plug that. We're going to be covering that with a live feed on Legal AF. We've been doing all the live feeds of the oral arguments of the United States Supreme Court with commentary there that I feel better knowing that you're going to be in that room. Talk to our audience though, at the end here about what is at stake? What are the states asking for at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday in front of Judge Talwani live and in person? What do you hope to walk away with? We hope to walk away with a temporary restraining order that blocks the Trump administration from unlawfully refusing to spend the five to six billion dollars in that SNAP contingency fund and make the payments that are due for November so that kids and the poor and our seniors and the disabled can eat in America in November, 41 million people.

14:09So that's what we're asking for. We are very hopeful. We feel we made a strong case and we wait the judge's ruling, but it will be an outstanding outcome if the funding that's supposed to be allocated to Americans so they can eat would actually be spent by this administration.

14:23Michael Popok:And you've done it before. I mean, the track record of the Democratic Attorneys General is fantastic. I mean, you're batting over, if you were the Dodgers, you guys would be thrilled. We'd be Ohtani. I mean, you're batting over 900. These are all the fame numbers right there. But I like to talk about that because it gives our audience some hope that the public interest groups like the ACLU and the Democracy Forwards, Democracy Now! and the attorneys general are helping average Americans who are being crushed and ignored by this air of indifference by the Trump administration, which just in my view is finally seeping into the water supply because you're seeing it show up in crowds, as you like to talk about, courts, crowds, and courage.

15:19Michael Popok:It's seeping into the crowds. Look at the numbers from hands-off to No Kings Day 1 to No Kings Day 2. It's almost doubled from the original one, the hands-off one, with almost 10 million people in the streets. And then you have, look at the polling. I mean, the polling, I mean, 63 % of America has rejected Donald Trump. You know, and that's very hard to turn around because he'll still be in charge. So he's still doing the same things. So we're hopeful that despite his efforts to try to change maps and get an advantage before he even starts at the midterms, that people are going to come out in large numbers and give you the crowd support that you're looking for.

16:03Michael Popok:Right? Absolutely. And I'll just end with this, that the American people deserve better from their president. They deserve a president that cares about them, that will follow the law, that will help make sure that when they're down on their luck, they're fed, that they have affordable health care, and he's not doing any of that. So they're being disrespected, demeaned, and improperly treated by this president. But they do have folks, like you mentioned, who are going to court, including my fellow Democratic AGs, who care about them, who see those Americans, who value those Americans, who want better for them, who know they deserve better, and are fighting for them, for their rights, for their funding that they deserve, for the services that they deserve, that they rely on to survive and to be healthy.

16:40And so I'm glad that there's so many people are tuning into what's happening. They're seeing what this president is doing to them, turning his back on them and visiting pain on them. And so that's what crowds are about. People's power is the most potent power that there is. Show up, show out, speak up, speak out. Exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to peacefully protest in exercise of your First Amendment. That's what makes our democracy strong. So keep fighting and keep showing up.

17:08Michael Popok:I think if our audience was in the room, they'd be on their feet now. And just lastly, your group definitely sued the right person. It's Russ Vogt. It's the Office of Management and Budget. He's the architect of Project 2025. It's not the USDA, the Agricultural Department. It's Russ Vogt. And you've properly sued him. And I think that's going to be a big part of your hearing what he's doing to destroy America as the head of the Office of Management and Budget. Attorney General Rob Bonta of California, one of the leaders of the attorneys general group that are fighting hard for America. This is, as we've heard already, every case is so important to our audience.

17:52Michael Popok:But this one, about$8 billion and 40 million people is just something that can't be ignored. Thank you for joining Legal AF, and we'll have you on next time. Thank you very much, Rob. Thank you, Michael. Really appreciate it. You too. That was Attorney General Rob Bonta joining to brief our Legal AF and Midas Touch audience again about the brand new filing temporary restraining order. This is in real time, folks. This is going to be a hearing in front of Judge Talwani in Massachusetts on Thursday at 11 a.m. to try to restore$8 billion worth of SNAP slash food stamp payments for those below the poverty line, children and babies and disabled and senior citizens.

18:39Michael Popok:It's that important. And we're so glad we have the newsmakers and the people that are fighting hard for our democracy and our rule of law who want to come on and speak directly to our Midas Touch and Legal AF audience. In the meantime, I'm Michael Popak. Until my next report.

19:09Michael Popok:including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well. We got some new reporting. We got interviews. We got ad-free versions of the podcast and hot takes. Where? Legal AF on Substack. Come over now to free subscribe.

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