"Since the announcement of President Biden’s vaccine and testing mandate in September, I have led the charge to strike down this vast overstep of authority by the federal government."
climate, social climate is a tender box. one incident can spark a number like we had last year. how do you think the biden administration should respond as city mayors are expressing this fear that they ve got really few options on how to regain control in their cities and curve the surge in crime? i think it s important for this administration to pay attention to its base which is those people who live in cities that are vulnerable as potential victims of violence. i mean, the most victimized community in america is the african-american community in central cities, they suffer terrible homicide rates. i think given the fact that mayors or democratic cities, not that i think any president would care about the party or the mayor, but i think the fact that they are a core constituency and very vulnerable should encourage the administration to continue making investments in quality criminal justice. i know they ve made some moves recently that may be helpful in terms of spending some mo
people have been bemoaning the effects, l.a. specifically, how it may affect l.a.x., how widespread are the concerns in los angeles, in the southland? well, the concerns are very widespread. i think the truth is, as you all have been reporting, is that we don t know what the impact is. l.a. is looking at a hit of about $is 15 million, which is a hit they could probably manage during normal times, but as you know they ve been flirting with fiscal insolvency, so money is rately tight. they re looking at potential kits to homeless programs, housing programs, police hiring, so this really has become a big issue in the mayor s race. the airport is already a total nightmare. we re hearing about longer lines in customs and potentially longer security lines a as we look forward to the furloughs for the employees coming up.
we were talking about the nay yorral race, bitterly fought, and it looks like it will head to a runoff. that s right. how much did sequestration come into the race is it? the big debate, there s nothing else to talk about in los angeles other than how they re going to deal with the budget problems, so it did come up a lot, because all of the candidates are trying to figure out where they re going to make the cuts, whether or not they can promise police hiring in the future. when there s no money, they don t have a lot to promise the voters, so but none of the candidates have given specific answers how they ll deal with the budget shortfall in the neighborhood of a billion over the next couple years. we re going to hear more about that in the runoff coming up, which we know will be between eric garcetti and wendy gruel.