A California sheriff has ripped Kamala Harris after the former vice president blamed President Trump for starting the anti-ICE protests that are wreaking havoc in Los Angeles.
“President Trump didn’t start these riots. He’s not out there lighting cars on fire, hurling projectiles at law enforcement or blocking freeways,” Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco said in a post on X as he shared Harris’ remarks.
“This statement is an embarrassment and does nothing to diffuse the violent riots taking place across the city.”
“The Democrats and their ‘leaders’ own this,” he added.
Bianco, who is running for governor in 2026, lashed out Harris after she accused the Trump administration of “stoking fear” by opting to deploy the National Guard to quell the violence.
“Los Angeles is my home. And like so many Americans, I am appalled at what we are witnessing on the streets of our city,” Harris said.
“Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos.”
The former veep went on to claim that the protests playing out in LA had been “overwhelmingly peaceful” – despite LAPD chief admitting his officers were overwhelmed” by the violence and vandalism after three consecutive days of demonstrations.
Wild scenes have shown anti-ICE agitators hurling rocks and cement at federal agents, as well as setting cars on fire and storming entire highways.
Police, meanwhile, declared all of downtown Los Angeles to be an unlawful assembly area and ordered protesters to go home on Sunday night.
Harris remarks echoed those of Gov. Gavin Newsom and other local officials who have accuse Trump of inflaming the protests by mounting a federal response.
Newsom said he planned to sue the administration over the deployment of National Guard troops, adding that Trump “has created the conditions” around the protests.
He accused the president of trying to manufacture a crisis and of violating California’s state sovereignty.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, too, blamed the Trump administration for inciting tension by sending in the National Guard.
“I don’t want people to fall into the chaos that I believe is being created by the administration completely unnecessarily,” she griped.
Trump hit back, describing the demonstrators as “violent, insurrectionist mobs.”
“Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
“ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!” he added.
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