The debate, broadcast on CNN, was one of their last chances to pitch themselves to voters and stand out from the pack in their primary election bids to succeed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who terms out in January. Mail voting is already underway, and voters have until June 2 to cast their ballots. The top-two vote getters will advance to the general election in November, regardless of party.

Though California hasn’t had a Republican governor in more than a decade, the specter hangs over the race as the field is still crowded with less than a month to go.

Candidates who took part in the debate include Democrats Xavier Becerra, a former health secretary for the Biden administration; Katie Porter, a former congresswoman; Tom Steyer, a billionaire climate activist; Matt Mahan, the mayor of San Jose; and Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles; as well as Republicans Steve Hilton, a conservative commentator; and Chad Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff.

Here’s how they responded on some of the key issues:

Universal healthcare

The candidates sparred over whether they’d eliminate private health insurance in favor of a state-run system, an idea that has failed repeatedly in Sacramento.

Porter, who backs a government-run healthcare system, pressed Becerra on his stance since he’s wavered on the issue recently.

“Do you support CalCare — California having its own state-run, single-payer system, yes or no?” Porter asked.

Becerra gave a vague answer.

“The most important thing about having a Medicare for All plan is that it includes everyone,” he said. “What we have to do is get to the point where we are covering everyone with something like Medicare for All.”

Mahan, who opposes a state-run system, later chimed in and said Becerra “was unable to clearly answer the most important question on healthcare.”

Becerra contested: “I did answer that question.”

Steyer joined Porter in saying he’d support it, while Bianco, Hilton, and Villaraigosa said it wasn’t practical or would cost too much.

When the debate turned to healthcare access for immigrants, the candidates were divided.

Steyer, Porter and Becerra said they supported state-funded healthcare coverage for low-income immigrants without legal status, which Newsom passed then pared back. Bianco called the policy “ridiculous.”

Immigration

Other arguments about immigration fell largely along party lines.

The Democrats sharply rebuked the Trump administration’s immigration raids.

Steyer said the state should prosecute federal agents and immigration enforcement leaders who racially profile or use violence against Californians. Mahan said business owners in San Jose have lost customers because many immigrants are afraid to leave their house.

But Bianco said he supported Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, saying agents were enforcing the law and working to deport people he referred to as “criminals” in the country illegally.

Hilton, who’s from England, pointed out that he was the only immigrant on stage. The candidates shouldn’t conflate legal and illegal immigration, he said.

“Although it is the federal government’s responsibility to determine and implement immigration policy, I think it’s important that all the laws are peacefully enforced,” Hilton said. “As governor, I would make sure that we work with the federal government to enforce our laws.”

President Donald Trump

The Democrats each emphasized they would fight Trump on immigration policy in particular.

Neither Hilton, whom Trump has endorsed, nor Bianco, invoked him much except to say that Democrats unfairly blame him for the state’s woes.

Becerra mentioned Trump the most, noting he sued the administration many times while serving as state attorney general from 2017 to 2021, when he was appointed health secretary under then-President Joe Biden.

“I’m going to repeat Donald Trump as often as I have because he’s the menace,” Becerra declared.

When Villaraigosa pressed Hilton to acknowledge Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Hilton refused to answer.

“Endlessly going on about Donald Trump doesn’t serve the needs of the struggling families and small businesses,” Hilton said.

Mahan sought to find middle ground. He said Becerra was wrong to blame high gas prices solely on Trump, but also noted that San Jose has sued the Trump administration over immigration policy. He said it was disqualifying for the Republican candidates to support Trump’s “cruel and ineffective policies.”

Porter, meanwhile, put it simply: “Donald Trump sucks.”

Gas tax and proposed billionaires tax

Steyer was the only candidate on stage to say he’d vote for a proposed billionaires tax expected to appear before voters in November. The one-time tax proposal aims to backfill funding cuts signed into law by Trump that reduced healthcare access for low-income people.

Porter also supports some increased taxes on California’s ultrawealthy but called the proposed tax a temporary fix to a long-term problem.

Meanwhile Mahan said he would suspend the gas tax because it unfairly burdens working families.

Hilton would make people’s first $100,000 free of income tax.

Mahan and Steyer said they’d tax artificial intelligence companies and use the money to support workers, for example through workforce development training.

“The answer is to tax these companies, not to regulate them to the point that they simply go to other places,” Mahan said.

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They also expressed concern about the devastation wrought in the Southeast by Hurricane Helene and called for a vigorous response from government to help those affected by the powerful storm. Helene was one of the deadliest storms in U.S. history, with the death toll surpassing 150 across six states. Damage stretched from Florida to Virginia, with some of the worst in western North Carolina, which experienced substantial inland flooding.

Vance, a Republican senator from Ohio and former President Trump’s running mate, called the destruction from Helene an “unbelievable and unspeakable human tragedy.” He said that he and Trump “want as robust and aggressive [of] a federal response as we can get to save as many lives as possible and then of course, afterwards, to help the people in those communities rebuild.”

“I commit that when Donald Trump is president again, the government will put the citizens of this country first when they suffer from a disaster,” he said.

On climate change, Vance said that “a lot of people are justifiably worried about all these crazy weather patterns,” and that he and Trump “support clean air, clean water” and “want the environment to be cleaner and safer.”

Vance did not answer how a Trump administration would address climate change, but said it would support more domestic energy production. He called Democratic concerns about carbon emissions a debate about “weird science.”

If emissions are a concern, Vance said, Democrats are addressing them in the wrong way. He said Democrats should be more interested in making energy cleanly in the United States than allowing energy to be produced in dirtier ways in other countries, such as China.

“If we actually care about getting cleaner air and cleaner water, the best thing to do is to double down and invest in American workers and the American people. And unfortunately, Kamala Harris has done exactly the opposite,” Vance said.

Walz, the Democratic governor of Minnesota and Vice President Harris’ running mate, also called the devastation in the Southeast “a horrific tragedy,” adding that he and other governors have been in contact on how to address the disaster.

Walz said officials are working on helping people, and “we need to make sure that they’re staying there, staying focused.”

On climate change, Walz attacked Trump for calling it a “hoax” in the past and for suggesting that rising ocean levels will provide more beachfront property.

Walz said his constituents in Minnesota, including many farmers, understand that climate change is very real. And they are helping to lead the country on the right path forward, toward truly clean energy.

“They’ve seen 500-year droughts, 500-year floods back to back. But what they’re doing is adapting, and this has allowed them to tell me, ‘Look, I harvest corn, I harvest soybean and I harvest wind.’ ”

He also said the Biden-Harris administration has invested in infrastructure and other programs that are helping communities adapt to climate change and has invested in domestic energy.

“We are producing more natural gas and more oil at any time than we ever have. We’re also producing more clean energy,” Walz said. “So the solution for us is to continue to move forward. That climate change is real. Reducing our impact is absolutely critical.”

Trump has slammed the Biden administration’s response to Helene as inadequate, and alleged with no evidence that the administration and Democratic leaders in North Carolina were “going out of their way to not help people in Republican areas.”

The Biden administration has rejected Trump’s claims. White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dismissed them as unfounded and said that more than 1,400 people have been supported or rescued in affected areas. Republican leaders have said the White House has been helpful in disaster relief.

President Biden has approved major disaster declarations in Florida, North Carolina and South Carolina, which will ease the path for those states to receive recovery funds.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a red state or blue state,” Jean-Pierre said Monday. “This is their job — to get food there, to get generators there, to save some lives, to rescue people.”

Trump’s supporters, including those behind Project 2025, have called for federal agencies that warn of weather disasters to be disbanded or face dramatic budget cuts, and Trump as president delayed post-hurricane aid to Puerto Rico. He also diverted money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which responds to natural disasters, to an initiative aimed at returning undocumented migrants to Mexico.

More than 150,000 households have already registered for assistance from FEMA in the wake of Helene, and that number is expected to rise rapidly in coming days, agency officials have said.

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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. 

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Never mind the Republican presidential debate Wednesday. The more fascinating faceoff will likely be between the haggling governors of California and Florida in November.

If it actually occurs, that is. The two are still squabbling over debate rules. But I figure they’ll settle their relatively minor differences and go at it on national television, entertaining millions.

There’s too much potential benefit for both California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis for them to pass up this golden opportunity to gain national attention.

A Newsom insider told me there’ll absolutely be a debate because both governors desire one. It was first proposed by Newsom last year and DeSantis has accepted. Fox TV host Sean Hannity would moderate.

The insider, who didn’t want to be named, dismissed the hassle over rules as typical pre-debate jockeying.

“It’ll be the most interesting debate in the next two years because it’ll be about the future,” the Newsom confidant said.

Candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, including DeSantis, will debate Wednesday in Milwaukee and again Sept. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley. But those debates will mostly sound like echo chambers.

GOP candidates will largely reiterate the same basic conservative views with only hair-splitting differences in their scripted talking points.

And they’ll struggle to differentiate themselves from the multi-indicted former President Trump without riling his large and loyal voter base.

But in a debate with the liberal California governor, DeSantis — a distant GOP runner-up to Trump in polls — won’t need to pull his punches. He can blast away at Newsom, reminding viewers that the left coaster is a President Biden surrogate.

Meanwhile, Newsom isn’t running for anything — except good positioning to perhaps launch a presidential campaign in 2028. He can swing freely at DeSantis.

There’ll be no subtle differences in their philosophical views. They’re diametrically opposed on immigration, gun control, taxes, abortion, school textbooks and, fundamentally, the right course for America.

I’ll be eager to hear Newsom try to explain why there are now more homeless people in California than there were when he took office in 2019, despite his having spent billions in a failed attempt to solve the problem.

And it’ll be amusing — if agitating — to watch DeSantis try to answer for his crass, soulless stunt of flying desperate immigrants to California and dumping them on church steps.

“It would be interesting for the country to see a direct debate between two approaches to governing,” says Republican consultant Rob Stutzman. “Now, for two different perspectives, you have to flip between two different news channels.” Fox and MSNBC.

Voters would be winners by hearing unabridged arguments from both sides.

Both politicians also would be winners by attracting wide attention and enhancing their images among core party constituencies.

Not everyone agrees.

“If I were Gavin Newsom, I would not even be talking about a debate with DeSantis,” says longtime Democratic consultant Darry Sragow, who publishes the California Target Book, which chronicles state political races.

“He can get plenty of attention squaring off with DeSantis without being in the same studio. He can continue to travel this country far and wide using DeSantis as a foil.

“Unexpected stuff can happen in a debate that can totally turn around a career. Something like a facial gesture or looking at a watch. The risks are too great and there’s not sufficient upside.”

One place Newsom excels, however, is in face-to-face confrontations, as he did in a sit-down interview with Hannity in June. It was arguably Newsom’s best performance as governor. His answers were characteristically detailed but unusually crisp.

I recall another California governor debating a national politician 56 years ago and emerging the unanimous winner. That was Republican Ronald Reagan outperforming Democratic Sen. Robert F. Kennedy of New York over the divisive issue of the Vietnam War.

“Kennedy, after the debate, asked, ‘Who the f— got me into this?’” Reagan biographer Lou Cannon wrote in his book “Governor Reagan, His Rise to Power.”

Newsom is no Reagan. But neither is DeSantis Kennedyesque. I wouldn’t fret about putting the Californian in the ring with the Floridian.

Both governors have agreed on a date, Nov. 8, and a purple state, Georgia, for the Fox debate site. The main hangup is over whether the debate should be held in an empty TV studio or before a live audience of rooters.

Newsom wants only the two governors answering Hannity’s questions without an audience. DeSantis desires a room full of spectators, half chosen by him and half by Newsom.

The problem with rooting sections is they tend to interrupt the debaters’ presumably substantive answers to important questions. The event becomes a childish circus.

“It would be a great debate — a must-see debate — just them and no audience,” says Bob Shrum, a former Democratic strategist who now is director of the Center for the Political Future at USC.

“DeSantis wants a cheering section — extra help from the audience.”

Shrum doubts they’ll ever agree on details and doesn’t believe there’ll be a debate.

That would be a shame for everyone.

Newsom shouldn’t quibble over details. Just seize the opportunity to heroically venture into the lion’s den — Fox TV with a right-wing governor — and perform before millions.

“This is a gift from the political heavens for Newsom,” says former Republican operative Dan Schnur, who teaches political communications at USC and UC Berkeley. “He gets a national stage with nothing to lose and everything to gain. He gets credibility for 2028.

“For Newsom, it’s just batting practice.”

Newsom and DeSantis have one thing in common. They’re former college baseball players. In their debate, both are practically guaranteed home runs.

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various author’s articles on this Opinion piece or elsewhere online or in the newspaper where we have articles with the header “COLUMN/EDITORIAL & OPINION” do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints or official policies of the Publisher, Editor, Reporters or anybody else in the Staff of the Hemet and San Jacinto Chronicle Newspaper.

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INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Thousands of people arguing the abortion issue surrounded the Indiana Statehouse and filled its corridors Monday as state lawmakers began consideration of a Republican proposal to ban nearly all abortions in the state and Vice President Kamala Harris denounced the effort during a meeting with Democratic legislators.

Harris said during a trip to Indianapolis that the abortion ban proposal reflects a health care crisis in the country. Despite the bill’s abortion ban language, anti-abortion activists lined up before a legislative committee to argue that the bill wasn’t strict enough and lacked enforcement teeth.

Indiana is one of the first Republican-run state legislatures to debate tighter abortion laws following the U.S. Supreme Court decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade. The Supreme Court ruling is expected to lead to abortion bans in roughly half the states.

“Maybe some people need to actually learn how a woman’s body works,” Harris said Monday, eliciting murmurs and laughs from the Democratic legislators. “The parameters that are being proposed mean that for the vast majority of women, by the time she realizes she is pregnant, she will effectively be prohibited from having access to reproductive health care that will allow her to choose what happens to her body.”

Confrontations erupted periodically between anti-abortion and abortion-rights demonstrators around the Indiana Statehouse. One person carrying a message on cardboard — “Forced Birth Is Violence” — followed a man, who carried a fake red fetus in a plastic bag over his shoulder, and tried to obscure his sign that read “Save Our Babies.”

Some people had virulent arguments encircled by other demonstrators

“You think you should dictate my life and my kids’ lives. That’s what you’re saying,” Kait Schultz, who wore a dark gray “Pregnant and Pissed” shirt, shouted to Christopher Monaghan.

“You don’t want to have a conversation,” Monaghan replied as they spoke over each other. He held a vertical sign that read “Babies Lives Matter.”

Elsewhere Monday, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice abruptly added state abortion law to the state’s Legislature’s agenda for a special session he called to focus on his income tax cut plan.

In his announcement, Justice asked legislators to “clarify and modernize” the state abortion laws in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. A week ago, a Charleston judge blocked enforcement of the state’s 150-year-old abortion ban, saying the recent laws enacted by the West Virginia Legislature “hopelessly conflict with the criminal abortion ban.”

In Tennessee, meanwhile, the attorney general’s office said it’s still unknown when the state’s anti-abortion “trigger ban” will go into effect, but some state lawmakers are raising alarm that the ban has no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.

Tennessee has been limiting abortion as early as six weeks into pregnancy — when most women don’t know they’re pregnant — ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s abortion decision last month. Republican Gov. Bill Lee refused last week to answer questions from reporters on he supported tweaking the trigger law, particularly sidestepping on whether he supported exempting children who were raped and then became pregnant.

Indiana’s Republican Senate leaders proposed a bill last week that would prohibit abortions from the time an egg is implanted in a woman’s uterus with limited exceptions — in cases of rape, incest and to protect the life of the mother. The proposal followed the political firestorm over a 10-year-old rape victim who traveled to the state from neighboring Ohio to end her pregnancy.

“She is a baby,” Democratic Rep. Cherrish Pryor of Indianapolis, one of the lawmakers at the meeting with Harris, said of the child. “Why should we force babies to have babies?”

The case of the Ohio girl gained wide attention when an Indianapolis doctor said the child had to go to Indiana because Ohio banned abortions at the first detectable “fetal heartbeat” after the Supreme Court’s abortion decision.

The ultimate fate of the Indiana abortion bill in the Republican-dominated Legislature is uncertain, as leaders of Indiana Right to Life, the state’s most prominent anti-abortion group, are decrying the Senate proposal as weak and lacking enforcement provisions.

Republican Senate leaders said the bill would not add new criminal penalties against doctors involved with abortions, but they would face possibly having their medical licenses revoked for breaking the law.

Numerous anti-abortion activists argued against including the exceptions allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest.

“I don’t believe children should be murdered based on their circumstance of conception,” Emma Duell of Noblesville told the Senate committee. “What happened the night they were conceived, something they have no control over should not affect whether they are protected from abortion violence or not.”

Republican Sen. Sue Glick, the abortion ban bill’s sponsor, said she expected amendments would be considered tightening the exceptions before the Senate’s anticipated vote on the proposal later this week.

Representatives of several physician groups raised concerns about the Indiana proposal possibly being questioned and prosecuted over their medical decisions.

Ariel Ream of Indianapolis said she was undergoing fertility treatments and worried that the abortion ban could leave her health threatened if she were to have a miscarriage and face bleeding.

“When am I hemorrhaging enough to be able to get care?” Ream said. “We don’t know if you go to the ER that doctor’s going to be scared enough to put their license on the line for me.”

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TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — When former President Donald Trump took the stage before a crowd of more than 5,000 young conservative activists in Tampa this weekend, he received the rock star’s welcome he’s grown accustomed to over the seven years in which he’s reshaped the Republican Party.

One night earlier, it was Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who had the crowd on its feet as he headlined the day’s program at Turning Point USA’s annual Student Action Summit.

“To be honest, it’s like choosing between your favorite child,” said Leo Milik, 19, who lives in Barrington, Illinois, when asked whom he’d like to see as the party’s next nominee.

Milik, wearing a “Trump was Right” baseball cap, said both Republicans “have their pros, they have their cons.” For now, he said, he’s leaning toward Trump.

That sentiment reflects the soul searching underway inside the GOP as an invisible primary for the 2024 presidential nomination begins to take shape, dominated at least for the moment by Trump and DeSantis.

There’s little doubt that Trump is moving closer to announcing a third presidential campaign. But there’s genuine debate over whether he’s the party’s best candidate to take on President Joe Biden, who is otherwise seen as a vulnerable incumbent heading into the next campaign, weighed down by soaring inflation, sinking popularity and questions about his capacity to manage the U.S. into his 80s.

This summer’s hearings by the House committee investigating the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection have only amplified the GOP’s anxiety about Trump. A pair of weekend editorials in the New York Post and Wall Street Journal — publications owned by the often Trump-friendly Rupert Murdoch — underscored the impact, castigating the former president for refusing to call off the mob of his supporters as they stormed the U.S. Capitol to halt the peaceful transfer of power.

“As a matter of principle, as a matter of character, Trump has proven himself unworthy to be this country’s chief executive again,” wrote the New York Post.

But inside the Tampa Convention Center, mentions of Jan. 6 elicited cheers as a who’s who of Trump’s “MAGA movement” took the stage in a room that had the feel of a Las Vegas nightclub.

Young attendees dressed in sparkly heels and candy-colored cowboy boots danced under laser lights to a DJ before the program began. Speakers were introduced with WWE-style videos, elaborate pyrotechnics and smoke displays. Throughout the venue, ring lights were placed strategically in front of logoed backdrops for flattering photo ops. Outside, a small group of neo-Nazis briefly waved swastika flags.

The top draw was Trump, who again teased his future plans.

“I ran twice. I won twice and did much better the second time … and now we may just have to do it again,” he said to thundering cheers and chants of “Take it back!”

During his speech, Trump appeared intent to address criticism from some corners of the party that he is too focused on relitigating the 2020 election, telling the crowd he wanted to talk about “some of the really big issues.” But he quickly returned to familiar grievances, labeling himself the most persecuted politician in the nation’s history as he inched ever closer to announcing a run.

“If I renounced my beliefs, if I agreed to stay silent, if I stayed home, if I announced that I was not going to run for office, the persecution of Donald Trump would immediately stop,” he said. “But that’s what they want me to do. And you know what? There’s no chance I do that.”

DeSantis, who often insists he is focused solely on reelection as governor, headlined Friday night’s program in an appearance that strongly suggested his ambitions extend beyond the state.

He welcomed the crowd to the “free state of Florida” and highlighted the anti-COVID mitigation policies that made him a conservative hero during the height of the pandemic. And he bragged about his efforts to bar discussions of race and sexual orientation in Florida classrooms, as well as his battles with Disney.

“We’ve accomplished an awful lot in the state of Florida. But we have only begun to fight,” he said. “Because we are on a mission to keep the state of Florida free and to save our great country.”

An unscientific straw poll of attendees at the event found that 78.7% would vote for Trump in a GOP primary, with DeSantis coming in second with 19%. No other potential candidate came in above 1 percent.

And many were indeed all in on a Trump 2024 run.

“I love the idea, I absolutely do,” said Ryan Malone, 33, who recently moved from New York to Florida. While he is a big fan of DeSantis, he argued that Trump is best positioned to turn the country around from what he sees as Biden’s litany of failures.

“I think that he would get more done,” he said. “Again, I love DeSantis, he’s my 1A, right? But I do think that if we’re going to get out of this miserable period that we’re in, Trump is the guy to get us out of this hole.”

Still, he worried about what might happen if the two were to run against each other in a GOP primary.

“I wouldn’t want to see there be bad blood between the person who’s, like, the true leader of our party and then the person who’s, you know, the second coming,” he said.

But his wife, Dr. Mariuxi Viteri Malone, 33, is eager for DeSantis to run. As an immigrant from Ecuador, she said she was offended by Trump’s rhetoric toward Hispanics.

“Be nice!” he said. “That’s all you need to do.”

Others were more strategic in their thinking.

Cameron Lilly, 29, said that he personally likes DeSantis better than Trump, but nonetheless thinks another Trump run makes sense for the party.

“I think Ron DeSantis right now is wasting the one more chance that Trump has,” said Lilly, who works for a defense contractor in Annapolis, Maryland. “I like DeSantis even a little bit more. But I think if we want to have consistent conservatives in the White House, one more Trump term, DeSantis as vice president, and then potentially one or two more terms. That’s the way to keep conservatives in the White House for more years.”

Steven Dykstra, 22, had another reason.

“As much as I want DeSantis to be the president — he would make a great president — I want him to stay in Florida,” said Dykstra, who attends Pasco-Hernando State College. “If he were to run in 2024, he wouldn’t be our governor. He’s been a great governor. I think he should stay.”

Orlando sisters Sydney and Janae Kinne, who go by “The Patriot Sisters” online, said they were fans of both Trump and DeSantis, but don’t expect either to run in 2024.

“I would still vote for him. We’re still there. But I would like to see him in a different seat this year,” said Janae, 23, of Trump. “If he runs, I mean, we’re going to be on the street rooting for him anyways. But we’d like to see him start to raise up other people who have the same mentality.”

Sydney, 21, said she was looking for an alternative, but wasn’t sure who.

“That’s the question of the hour,” she said. “Right now what we need is someone that, yes, is strong, they’re strong-willed, but someone that’s a little more kind of rallying everyone together.”

But Zachary Roberson, 22, said that, if he ever had to choose between Trump and DeSantis, he’d pick the Florida governor.

“He seems like a more refined version of Trump. So I’m hoping he runs for president,” said Roberson, a student at Florida Gulf Coast University.

As for Trump, Roberson suggested: “You can run for governor here in Florida.”

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When Is Too Much Cheating… Well… Too Much?

As a coach myself, I have taught my athletes tips and tricks to set themselves apart from the competition: little things like grabbing a jersey as the opponent tries to create separation. These things are technically considered Illegal, yet everyone does them with the same philosophy, “if you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying.” I have said it, coaches have said it too me. It is part of the fabric on which athletes are raised.

Everything you can do to get an advantage, you do. Some athletes like Kobe Bryant achieved this legendary separation through work ethic and determination alone. He is infamous for waking up before the sun comes up and spending all day in the gym, working on the same sequence of dribbles and shots for hours on end until he was satisfied. Other athletes like Barry Bonds achieved their notoriety through the assistance of Performance Enhancing Drugs or P.E.D’s, helping him gain muscle and shred fat with minimal exercise. These drugs also help him gain incredible strength and speed that almost seemed unnatural.

In the latest development, the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox have been caught stealing pitching signs from their opponents, including their World Series opposition the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sign stealing is nothing new in baseball, it’s been apart of the game ever since anyone can remember. However, there is a right way to do it. The Astro’s and Red Sox used technology to achieve this, rather than rely on personnel and sportsmanship. They set up a live feed camera aimed to the catcher, after decoding the catcher’s signs they would call into the dugout and a player would bang on a trash can to let the batter know what pitch is coming. All of a sudden, you aren’t in a game: you are in batting practice and the pitches are way easier to hit. 

Dodger’s Pitcher Alex Wood had this to say about it, “I would rather face a guy who was on PED’s then a guy who knew every pitch before I threw it.” The story got worse. Apparently the trashcan method wasn’t good enough, so the Astro’s resorted to adding another piece of technology to the rouse, although this is still the product of heavy speculation and has not yet been proven: Astro players started wearing buzzers that were held down by Band-Aids/tape. The camera operator would have a clicker and each pitch had a designated click value (1=fastball 2=off speed 3=curve etc) even though it hasn’t been proven yet, there is plenty of very suspicious activities found on video and pictures that point to this being a very plausible reality.

What does this teach our kids in recreational sports? Does it teach that it’s okay to cheat as long as you win the championship?

Kids look up to professional athletes and hold them on the same pedestal as they do superheroes. These athletes are almost fictional characters: the things they do on the field/court seems otherworldly. To many kids, there is no difference between Lebron James and Iron Man. How are they supposed to look at their heroes now without thinking they are frauds?  The technique the Astro’s used proved to be effective, the split screens tell the full story. Houston Astro’s player Jose Altuve was viewed as one of these “Folk Heroes” destined to go down in history as an Astro Legend. Now it’s a different story: throughout the 2017 postseason he was an effective batter and proved to be a challenge, but break the splits down further and take a look. While visiting other parks Altuve had a .143 Batting Average and a .497 OPS (On Base + Slugging) now let’s take a look at when he was in his park and had “assistance” Altuve had an impressive.472 BA and a 1.541 OPS when at home. The MLB average BA last season was.248 and the OPS was.700 these numbers tell the whole story for you. When in another team park Altuve was a below-average hitter and actually put up terrible numbers for a Major Leaguer. When at home he was hitting like a god and appeared to be the next great baseball player that would be talked about for generations to come.

The MLB has already fined the Astro’s 5 million dollars, taken away draft picks and suspended coaches for next season (ultimately leading to them being dismissed from the team), but is that enough though? Maybe the MLB should strip the trophies and have no winners for the 2017 & 2018 seasons. After all, the kids are watching and if they don’t strip the titles, then the MLB is teaching these kids, “It’s okay to cheat, as long as you win.”

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Splash Pads: Responses From Our Readers

In last week’s Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle print edition, we wrote an article asking our readers if they thought the addition of a splash pad would benefit our community. We were pleased by the number of responses; many parents/grandparents were thrilled with the idea. Others in the community were worried about the funding, keeping the park sanitary, keeping unwanted trespassers out, and preventing the park from vandalism were all opinions that were had by many who aren’t in favor of a splash pad to be added. If you read the article, it stated that the funding of the project would come via government grants for underprivileged cities, not taxpayers’ pockets. Also more often than not, the water at these parks only operates between 12-5 and they are usually fenced in. Here are some of the responses from the community about the idea of Hemet or San Jacinto building a splash pad.

“Yes! We would love to have it in our valley we have children that would enjoy it so much! We hope we can get this a pass and get one here.”- Kathy Meza

“I have lived in this community for 20 years, and it seems to get hotter every summer. We could definitely use some better parks and splash pads. It would 100% help as long as we can keep the town’s unsavory homeless population out of them. I have a 1 1/2 yr old and my husband, and I currently have to drive to Temecula to take her to a nice safe, drug-free park.” – Desiree Ortiz

“An interesting idea. First, consider the median income, and home prices in the areas that were mentioned already have a splash pad. The taxes in those areas can support something like this. Now, consider the same for this area. Median income and the home price is significantly lower.

If a grant could be acquired to pay for a splash pad, there is still upkeep and insurance, which would be a pretty penny. Can this area afford those costs and not take money away from other valuable services?

I think a splash pad would be awesome. However, I am concerned about the long term feasibility.” – Jo Ann Roettgen

One reader even suggested that it be built right outside of the police station, that would be one way to ease some of the concerns that many members of the community have. Another suggested we use the state grant money to build a skatepark and look to re-opening the community pools or convincing the local high schools to have free-swimming hours at their pools during the summer.  Many people in our community think a free/very cheap splash pad would make a positive difference in our cities.

The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle looks forward to interacting with you more if you want to respond to the idea of having a splash pad or have a suggestion for our next “Questions to the Community” article, email VCsportsKyle@gmail.com

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Several persisted in their distorted depiction of caged migrant children as a singular cruelty of President Donald Trump. Others glossed over the intricacies of complex issues, at times dismissing pointed questions as a “Republican talking point” — and not answering. Trump accurately called them out on their kids-in-cages rhetoric while falsely claiming migrant family separations came from the Obama era and he ended it.

Ten candidates debated in Detroit on Wednesday, as did 10 the night before. After this, it becomes harder to qualify for the debates ahead and some won’t make the cut.

A look at some of their claims, Trump’s counterpunch, and how they compare with the facts:

KAMALA HARRIS, senator from California: “We’ve got a person who has put babies in cages and separated children from their parents.”

MICHAEL BENNET, senator from Colorado, in a message directed at Trump: “Kids belong in classrooms not cages.”

TRUMP tweet: “The cages for kids were built by the Obama Administration in 2014. He had the policy of child separation. I ended it even as I realized that more families would then come to the Border!”

THE FACTS: There’s deception on both sides here.

Family separations as a matter of routine came about because of Trump’s “zero tolerance” enforcement policy. President Barack Obama had no such policy and Trump’s repeated attempts to pin one on him flies in the face of reality. Trump only ended — or suspended — what Trump had started, and that was after a judge ordered that the practice be sharply curtailed and as an international uproar grew.

Moreover, the American Civil Liberties Union now says in a legal challenge that more than 900 children were separated from their parents at the border in the year after the judge’s order.

The Obama administration also separated migrant children from families when a child’s safety appeared at risk with the adults or in other limited circumstances. But the ACLU says children have been removed after the judge’s order for minor transgressions by the adults, like traffic offenses, or for unfounded suspicions of wrongdoing.

Trump is correct in noting that the “cages” — chain-link enclosures inside border facilities where migrants have been temporarily housed, separated by sex and age — were built and used by the Obama administration. The Trump administration has used them, too.

JOE BIDEN, former vice president, on Obama’s approach to people who came to the U.S. illegally as children: “The president came along and he’s the guy that came up with the idea, first time ever, of dealing with the Dreamers. He put that in the law.”

THE FACTS: He’s wrong that Obama achieved a law protecting those young immigrants. He notably failed on that front. Instead he circumvented Congress and used his executive authority to extend temporary protection, letting them stay in the country if they met certain conditions. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, as its name implies, merely defers deportations.

Trump, also with executive action, tried to end the program but the effort has been tied up in courts, so the protection continues for now.

HARRIS: “Autoworkers we expect, perhaps, hundreds of thousands will be out of jobs by the end of the year.”

THE FACTS: This dire prediction is faulty. The auto industry is not facing the imminent risk of such a collapse.

That might have happened — as a worst-case scenario — if Trump had followed through on threats to enact new tariffs and policies that would have hurt the auto industry. But he didn’t.

Harris has been citing the Center for Automotive Research’s 2018 study , which examined hypothetical job losses across all U.S. industries touched by the auto business — not just the nation’s nearly 1 million autoworkers — if Trump introduced certain tariffs and policies.

The study gave a wide range of possible job losses, from 82,000 to 750,000. The findings were later revised in February to a worst-case scenario of 367,000 across all industries by the end of this year. Those hypothetical job losses would be spread across car and parts makers, dealers, restaurants, retail stores and any business that benefits from the auto industry.

Impact on the auto industry was further minimized when the Trump administration lifted tariffs on steels and aluminum products coming from Canada and Mexico.

The industry has added thousands of jobs since a crisis in 2009 that sent General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy protection.

After a record sales year of 17.55 million in 2016 demand has fallen to an expected 16.8 million new vehicle sales this year. But the industry is still posting strong numbers and is not heading off a cliff.

BILL DE BLASIO, mayor of New York City, on why he hasn’t fired the police officer who used a chokehold on Eric Garner: “For the first time, we are not waiting on the federal Justice Department which told the city of New York that we could not proceed because the Justice Department was pursuing their prosecution and years went by and a lot of pain accrued.”

THE FACTS: This is false. The Justice Department did not stop the city from moving forward on the matter. The New York Police Department decided to delay disciplinary proceedings for Officer Daniel Pantaleo on its own accord.

While local officials sometimes defer their investigation as federal prosecutors conduct criminal probes, there was no requirement for the police department to wait for the federal civil rights investigation in weighing a decision about whether to fire Pantaleo.

The Justice Department announced this month that it would not bring any charges in connection with Garner’s death. Pantaleo faced an internal departmental trial and a departmental judge hasn’t officially rendered a recommendation yet on whether he should be fired or disciplined.

The police commissioner, who reports to de Blasio, could act at any time to fire Pantaleo.

CORY BOOKER, senator from New Jersey, on decriminalizing illegal entry at the border: “Doing it through the civil courts means you won’t need these awful detention centers that I’ve been to.”

THE FACTS: Not exactly. It’s true that there could be reduced immigration detention at the border if there were no criminal charge for illegal entry. But border officers would still need to process people coming over the border and that could lead to temporary holding, such as the so-called cages that Democrats call inhumane.

Also, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement uses detention to hold people awaiting deportation who have been accused or convicted of more serious crimes, including those who have green cards or other legal status.

For example, in December 2018, ICE detained 47,486 people, according to an analysis at Syracuse University. Of those, 29,753 had no conviction, and those people probably would not be in detention if illegal entry were a civil issue.

But 6,186 had serious crime convictions, 2,237 had other convictions and 9,310 had minor violations and those people could still be held, according to the analysis.

HARRIS: “Right now in America, we have seniors who every day – millions of seniors – are going into the Medicare system.”

THE FACTS: It’s more like 10,000 people a day who turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare, which offers coverage for hospitalization, doctor visits, prescription drugs and other services.

Medicare covers more than 60 million people, including disabled people of any age.

JOE BIDEN: “We should put some of these insurance executives who totally oppose my plan in jail for the 9 billion opioids they sell out there.”

THE FACTS: Biden must have meant drug company executives, since insurance companies pay for medications — they don’t sell them.

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