The rest of the state, however, is being destroyed by rampant crime, sweeping homelessness and unauthorized immigrants — and it’s spurring a mass exodus, Trump said at a press conference today.

“The state of California is a mess,” said Trump. 

“We cannot allow Comrade Kamala Harris and the communist left to do to America what they did to California,” said the former president, who had held a fundraiser in Los Angeles on Thursday night and plans one later today in the Bay Area community of Woodside to cash in on California’s lucrative trove of donors.

Attacking California is something Trump didn’t even do once in his first — and he says only — presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris Tuesday night in Philadelphia. Political experts perceived it as a missed opportunity: After all, his allies have for decades decried California as too liberal for the rest of the nation — partly why there has never been a California Democrat elected president. 

The jury is still out on how much Harris’ California ties could hurt her chance among undecided voters. For most Michigan and Arizona voters who spoke to CalMatters last month, Harris’ record in the White House mattered more than her California brand. 

Trump, who repeatedly mispronounced Harris’s first name, also blamed Harris for federal economic and border policies and insisted he outperformed her during the debate.

The Harris campaign’s rapid response team posted about some of Trump’s statements, but has not directly responded to what he said about her record or her home state. 

How much of the many, many things Trump said about California and Harris’ record is accurate? Here’s our fact check on some notable claims:

State of the state

What Trump said:
“California has the highest inflation, highest taxes, the highest gas prices, the most illegal aliens, the most regulations, the most expensive utilities, and it ranks as the third worst state to start a business.”

Facts:

• Inflation: Inflation rates fluctuate month to month. Florida had the highest inflation at 4% as of March, while California had the seventh highest, at 3.6%, according to an analysis of the Bureau of Labor Statistics data by Moody’s Analytics. Even according to U.S. Senate Republicans’ own inflation tracker, as of August, California ranked 5th for increased monthly inflation costs since January 2021 and had a cumulative inflation rate lower than Florida and other states in the West region.
• Taxes: California does have the highest state sales tax at 7.25%, but ranks 8th in total state and local sales tax rates this year, according to the Tax Foundation. California’s property tax rate is at 0.75%, the 34th highest of all 50 states. The state also has a progressive income tax rate while other states have a flat rate for all. 
• Gas prices: It is true. California does have the highest gas price of all states, at $4.76 a gallon as of today, according to the AAA. The national average is $3.23. 
• Unauthorized immigrants: California is estimated to have the largest population of undocumented immigrants, at 1.8 million, based on a Pew Research Center estimate of 2022 Census figures. But California is also the only state where that population decreased from 2019 to 2022, while the populations in Republican-led Florida and Texas grew the most. 
• Utility rates: As of June, Hawaii — not California — had the highest electricity rates, averaging 42.4 cents per kilowatt hour for residential customers, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. In California, residential customers paid an average of 33.0 cents per kilowatt hour. A Forbes analysis of monthly utility bills by state ranked Alaska the most expensive, followed by Hawaii, Connecticut, West Virginia and Georgia.
• Worst state to start a business: It depends which ranking you look at, but according to Forbes, California is the 37th best state to start a business this year.   

Crime in California

What Trump said: Trump blamed the “destruction” of San Francisco on Gov. Gavin Newsom and Harris. He said murders rose “significantly” and car thefts “went through the roof” while Harris was state attorney general. He argued that Harris was lenient in prosecuting several cases, that she had endorsed defunding the police and that “the police don’t endorse her.”

Facts:

• Crime stats: When Harris was California attorney general between 2011 and 2017, homicide rates fluctuated, with an average of 1,819 homicides per 100,000 people each year, according to the state Department of Justice. Vehicle thefts ebbed and flowed, averaging 164,000 per 100,000 people. Both rates were far lower than during the 1990s.
• Leniency: Despite claims she’s soft on crime, Harris has a mixed record. As a local prosecutor, Harris did not pursue the death penalty against a cop killer — a case Trump used during the press conference to justify his claim. But years later, Harris prosecuted a woman with mental illness for assaulting police officers. As California’s attorney general, Harris defended the state’s death penalty even though she personally opposed it. Harris remained neutral on various ballot measures about reducing penalties for low-level offenses and allowing earlier release for more offenders.
• Defund the police: It is true that Harris expressed support for redirecting some money and “reimagining” public safety during her 2020 presidential campaign, weeks after George Floyd was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis, sparking waves of protests against law enforcement. “This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities,” she said at the time. After President Joe Biden tapped her as his running mate, however, she denounced the “defund” movement.
• Police endorsements: More than 100 law enforcement officials — including sheriffs, former and current police chiefs and FBI agents — endorsed Harris last week.

Immigration and the border

What Trump said: He lambasted Harris for supporting “sanctuary cities” for undocumented immigrants while she was San Francisco’s district attorney, claiming she shielded “illegal aliens” who committed murders and refused to deport them. 

Facts: 

• Sanctuary city policy: The San Francisco city ordinance — which prevented officials from handing over unauthorized migrants to Immigration and Customs Enforcement even if they committed a felony — dates to 1985. It was originally aimed at protecting asylum seekers from El Salvador and Guatemala, but was extended in 1989 to cover all immigrants. Harris — who was district attorney from 2004 to 2011 — supported changing the policy to report undocumented immigrants arrested on suspicion of a felony in 2008. 
• Prosecuting unauthorized immigrants: Trump said Harris offered sanctuary in 2008 to Edwin Ramos, a Salvadoran migrant who was charged with three counts of murder and who had prior convictions for assault and attempted robbery. Similarly, Trump mentioned the case of Rony Aguilera, a Honduran immigrant who murdered a 14-year-old boy in 2008. It is true city officials did not turn him over to federal agents at the time — under the sanctuary city policy that Harris helped change that year. Ramos was sentenced to life in prison in 2014, and Aguilera was sentenced to 40 years to life in prison in 2013.

Homelessness  

What Trump said: “After Kamala Harris and Gavin Newscum took charge of San Francisco, homelessness increased by over 200%.” 

Facts: Homelessness has grown in California, but not by that much. From 2007 to 2023, the number of people experiencing homelessness grew by 30.5%, according to a report to Congress. In San Francisco, the point-in-time count of homeless people this year reached the lowest level since 2015, according to the city. Nearly 186,000 Californians live on the streets or homeless shelters, up 8% from 2022, according to a new CalMatters analysis. As of last year, California accounted for nearly 30% of the nation’s homeless population and roughly half of the unsheltered population.

California exodus

What Trump said: He claimed the state has the most number of people leaving. 

Facts: It is true that California shed the most people last year — 75,423, according to the Census Bureau. But it’s not just a California problem: New York lost the most population between 2020 and 2022, losing 2.6% of its population, according to Census data. The reasons for California’s shrinking population are complicated: Some died, some moved to other states due to the high cost of living, and some left the country altogether. 

The post ‘Mess’ and ‘destruction’: Fact-checking Trump’s attacks on California and Kamala Harris appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Proponents, including law enforcement organizations and major retailers, say the law would help reduce rampant retail theft and tackle homelessness. But opponents point out that not only does the measure lack funding for drug treatment and shelter efforts, it actually could end up taking money away from those services in order to fund increased prison and judicial costs.

The measure, dubbed the Homelessness, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, on Tuesday was cleared by state officials to appear on the Nov. 5 ballot after organizers gathered the required number of signatures.

If approved by voters, the measure would roll back some of the changes made by Proposition 47, which reclassified certain felonies as misdemeanors. Most notably, the 2014 law made theft and other property crimes under $950, as well as the personal use of most illegal drugs misdemeanors.

While violent and property crimes have increased statewide since 2020, they remain relatively low compared other the 1980s and 1990s, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Critics of Prop. 47 blame the measure for increasing crime and a host of other issues, despite a lack of conclusive data proving that correlation.

“Our homelessness problem is directly connected to these unintended consequences of Proposition 47, which the voters now desire to correct,” reads the new measure.

The measure would allow for felony charges to be filed against those who commit thefts under $950 as well as for possessing certain drugs, including fentanyl, in cases where the suspect has two prior drug or two prior theft convictions.

Currently, such cases can only be prosecuted as misdemeanors.

Defendants who plead guilty to felony drug possession and complete treatment could have their charges dismissed under the measure.

The measure has earned strong support from the state’s top retailers, including Walmart, Target, Home Depot and 7-Eleven, who are among the campaign’s major funders, Bloomberg reported.

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan and the state associations of police chiefs and prosecutors are also among the effort’s backers.

“The Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act will make targeted but impactful changes to our laws around fentanyl and help us tackle the chronic retail theft that hurts our retailers, our workers, and our cities. I fully support this measure and know it will make a meaningful difference for cities across California,” reads a quote from Breed on the campaign’s website.

But critics say the bill’s targeting of Prop. 47 is overly simplistic at best.

“We have to dispense with this simplistic narrative that reforms are what caused the crime and the crime is what causes all of the retail problems that the retail establishments are reporting,” said Charis Kubrin, a professor of Criminology, Law and Society at UC Irvine told the Sacramento Bee.

Additionally, an analysis of the measure by state officials found that increased sentences and incarceration may cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars. And to pay for it, the state might have to reduce spending on mental health and substance abuse services, truancy and dropout prevention and victim services, based on requirements in current law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom and other lawmakers oppose the measure in favor of their own competing bill package, arguing that concerns about retail theft can be addressed without altering Prop. 47,the Bee reported.

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