Though U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D) has solely served in Congress since 2023, the consultant for California’s forty second Congressional District shortly emerged as a rising star within the Democratic Celebration who has turn out to be generally known as an particularly outspoken critic of President Donald Trump since his return to the White Home in January.
Delivering memorable hits on cable information applications, punchy sound bites in congressional hearings, and spirited spats with political opponents on X, Garcia is amongst a handful of leaders on the left who’ve been feted for his or her outspokenness at a time when pushback towards the administration by Democrats has extensively been criticized as anemic, ineffectual, inconsistent, or insufficiently aggressive.
Final week, the California congressman, who’s homosexual, sat down with the Washington Blade in his workplace for an interview that was continued by telephone on Tuesday within the wake of Friday’s transfer by 9 Senate Democrats and their chief Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) to avert a authorities shutdown by supporting the controversial funds proposal superior by congressional Republicans.
Critics blasted Schumer and the senators who voted with him, arguing that they’d voluntarily forfeited leverage that their occasion will hardly ever once more have the chance to train — no less than, not till the a hundred and twentieth Congress is seated in 2027, and solely then if Democrats are in a position to recapture management of both or each legislative chambers.
Calling the Democratic chief’s resolution “out of contact” and “an enormous disservice to the American individuals,” Garcia stated he was “extremely angered and past upset,” including “I believe that he’s turned his again, for my part, on the rank and file base of the occasion, and definitely on his personal members.”
The congressman stated he agrees with remarks made in latest days by Senate Democrats who’ve deemed this battle over the funds “the second to truly stand as much as Donald Trump and Elon Musk in a method that was forceful and robust.”
“People who voted to assist this funds decision are fully not aligned with the overwhelming majority of People and definitely [not with] Democrats who needed to truly battle Elon Musk and push again a lot more durable,” Garcia stated, contrasting Schumer’s management with Jeffries who “did the suitable factor” and was in a position to carry “the caucus collectively,” efficiently convincing “everybody, I imply, virtually unanimously, to vote towards the funds.”
Greater than that, Garcia stated Friday’s vote exemplifies a broader failure amongst some elected Democrats “particularly, possibly, amongst these which were in authorities for a very long time” to reckon with the existential dangers offered by the Trump administration and highly effective allies like Musk.
The congressman stated these political leaders “are considering that someway that is simply one other yr or simply one other cycle, and issues will simply get higher and return to the way in which they have been” as a result of they’ve failed to acknowledge the last word ambitions of the president, his administration, Musk, and their allies, who endeavor to “basically restructure the way in which authorities works, to construct a system the place you’ve got an authoritarian on the high with huge quantities of energy” unchecked by the federal judiciary or the legislative department.
“It’s supreme govt authority,” he stated, coupled with “disregard” for the powers ordained by the Structure to the courts and to the Congress. “That could be a very harmful formulation if you’re sitting on high of the wealthiest nation on the earth with an infinite navy and large energy over what occurs in the remainder of the world.”
“We stay in a really harmful time and I simply don’t really feel like everybody is knowing that, together with individuals in our personal occasion,” Garcia added.
The congressman famous that affordable individuals may attain completely different conclusions about whether or not Trump’s second time period has but offered such a grave menace to America’s political and democratic establishments and the rule of regulation that the time has come to declare a state of emergency or break the glass, to to talk, to launch the fireplace alarm.
In Garcia’s view, “you’ve got the richest man on the planet who’s getting solely richer because the election of Trump, who has an unobstructed potential to enter company after company, entry individuals’s private info, primarily eradicate jobs, instantly electronic mail federal workers about having to report their actions to him — that could be a 5 alarm fireplace.”
“That’s unconstitutional and it’s an actual problem to the way in which we function our authorities,” he added.
Organizing grassroots resistance at house
Returning to extra acquainted territory for inter-party debate the congressman criticized the GOP’s funds package deal, warning that it would “slash different varieties of well being care, might slash Social Safety,” however as a result of it proposes trillions of {dollars} in cuts, lawmakers could have no possibility however to “take Medicare and Medicaid aside.”
Along with the “destruction of our companies” led by Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity, Garcia stated the trouble by congressional Republicans to trim the funds in methods that may imperil entry to vital medical take care of populations that rely on it, together with “low-income of us, seniors, and dealing class individuals” is supposed to release cash for “large tax cuts to Elon Musk, the billionaires, and enormous companies.”
Extra particularly, throughout an interview Friday with MSNBC’s Alex Witt, Garcia warned the funding invoice will “minimize billions and billions of {dollars}, for instance, for veterans’ well being care” whereas prohibiting Congress from pushing again “on the tariffs that Donald Trump is attempting to implement,” giving “a rubber stamp of approval to what Elon Musk is doing raiding our federal companies,” and gutting applications by companies just like the U.S. Division of Schooling that serve college students with disabilities and particular wants.
Garcia additional defined that “sending the cash to the states as Trump desires to do primarily offers states the flexibility to ship that cash to personal colleges and to offer a system the place really public colleges get defunded as a result of personal colleges received’t take these applications up.”
Talking with the Blade on Tuesday from Lengthy Seashore, the town within the middle of CA-42 the place he served as mayor from 2014 to 2022, Garcia defined how he was utilizing the Home’s district work interval to arrange opposition towards the Trump regime.
After the congressman’s airplane touched down from Washington, he took the chance to file a video for social media to clarify that “We needs to be investing in our airports and passenger security, not reducing 400 FAA positions” because the administration did final month.
“We have to rent extra air visitors controllers and be certain that flying stays the most secure technique to journey,” he stated.
We needs to be investing in our airports and passenger security, not reducing 400 FAA positions. We have to rent extra air visitors controllers and be certain that flying stays the most secure technique to journey. pic.twitter.com/3QSL6EcIIr
— Congressman Robert Garcia (@RepRobertGarcia) March 17, 2025
After Republican management inspired its members to keep away from holding in-person conferences with constituents as a result of they’d complained and expressed anger in regards to the reducing or suspension of federal companies, grants, applications, and companies, Garcia introduced he would maintain city halls in GOP districts in California, a technique that has been touted by different leaders in his occasion like Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the 2024 Democratic candidate for vp.
“Not this weekend however the subsequent weekend I’ll be launching in a Republican member’s district in California and doing a city corridor there,” Garcia instructed the Blade. “Will probably be in a Republican swing district.”
Within the meantime, the congressman stated he has been visiting with and listening to his constituents. “I simply left a college right here in southeast L.A. the place I met with the principal and a bunch of academics, and talked in regards to the college students that they’ve in particular applications which can be receiving funds from the federal authorities.”
“They have been exhibiting me type of a middle the place they’ve, like, toiletries and sneakers and backpacks for youths that they’ve obtained by assist from the U.S. Division of Schooling,” he stated. “So there’s simply a lot want, in speaking to of us, and a lot anger from individuals about what’s occurring.”
“Earlier immediately, I used to be on the Social Safety Administration middle right here in one of many cities I symbolize, so I’m going round speaking to individuals the place they’re getting their companies and individuals are actually annoyed,” Garcia added. “I don’t suppose individuals notice that almost all of those those that rely on a whole lot of these applications are working households, that they want the assist to outlive, and but they’ve the richest man on the planet reducing their companies as a result of he feels prefer it and he desires an even bigger tax minimize.”
Throughout final week’s interview, when requested what he hopes to realize from partaking with constituents in aggressive neighboring districts that are actually represented by Republicans, the congressman stated he hopes that attendees acknowledge that “you’ve got a member of Congress too scared to truly reply these questions” however his goal is foremost to take heed to their considerations and tackle their questions.
Garcia recounted a number of the studies within the media detailing scenes from city halls in GOP districts that have been held previous to the trouble by occasion management to comprise the unhealthy press. Attendees “have been pissed,” he stated. “They have been demanding solutions. Why am I dropping my job? Why are my veterans’ advantages going to be minimize? Why are you attempting to dismantle the federal Division of Schooling when my child has a incapacity and is determined by these applications?”
Democratic leaders carry completely different strengths, types
Not one of the 9 Home Republicans that the Democratic Nationwide Committee recognized as “most susceptible” symbolize districts in California, and it stays to be seen what number of Home Democrats will observe Garcia’s lead and stage city halls in pink or purple areas of their respective states to make the most of the anger and frustration over Trump’s second time period.
Nonetheless, and however his criticism for the Senate Democrats who cosigned the Republican funds, or his considerations that some leaders within the occasion could not have come to phrases with the exigencies demanded by this tumultuous second in American politics, Garcia pressured that Home Democrats profit from the completely different strengths and completely different types introduced by its various members.
There may be even room to accommodate variations of opinion, he stated, on questions like whether or not and wherein circumstances transgender feminine athletes needs to be permitted to take part in women’ and girls’s sports activities.
Breaking from the place that, no less than in recent times, has been held virtually with out exception by Democratic elected officers serving in nationwide and statewide workplace, California’s ardently pro-LGBTQ Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom argued throughout an interview earlier this month that permitting these athletes to compete towards their cisgender counterparts was “deeply unfair.”
The feedback, which drew criticism from teams just like the Human Rights Marketing campaign, got here as some Democrats had begun to query whether or not their electoral defeat in 2024 may need been partly attributable to sunlight between the occasion’s place and the place the broader citizens lands on the problem, with most People tending to assist restrictions concentrating on trans gamers in no less than some circumstances, in accordance with information from surveys and polls.
Garcia stated his place is and all the time has been that far an excessive amount of focus and a focus has been paid to the problem, which finally considerations such a small inhabitants that turns into smaller, nonetheless, when the aperture is narrowed additional to focus simply on athletes. Younger individuals, he stated, ought to have the ability to reap the advantages that include taking part in aggressive sports activities, together with those that will encounter extra challenges or hardship as a result of they’re trans.
Nonetheless, the congressman stated he continues to assist the governor, noting that few People have finished extra for LGBTQ rights than Newsom has.
Moreover, Garcia stated, somewhat than attempting to reconcile minor occasion variations in regards to the sports activities query, Democrats ought to as a substitute band collectively towards excessive efforts by the anti-trans Republicans “attempting to police loos or attempting to remove their well being care.”
“Persons are gonna have completely different positions,” Garcia stated, and “our occasion has numerous completely different positions on this problem” simply as Democrats can carry completely different approaches to speaking about coverage or types of messaging about politics to their work on Capitol Hill.
Whereas “a few of us have found out methods of taking over the administration that additionally get some consideration” or provide probabilities to “shine a light-weight on the insurance policies” thus exposing their harms, alternatively Garcia stated “There are different individuals in our caucus which can be so good at what they do, and I might have a tough time doing what they do, as a result of they’re so good at it.”
Leaning in to variations
Throughout his time in Congress, the California Democrat, 47, stated he has tried to capitalize on his information of popular culture and leisure “to get consideration on a coverage problem.”
As an illustration, final summer season when Republicans went after Hunter Biden’s abroad enterprise dealings throughout an Oversight Committee listening to and in response Democrats sought to redirect the main target towards Trump’s conduct involving international enterprise pursuits throughout his first time period, Garcia quoted from a monologue delivered by Heather Homosexual through the finale episode of Season 4 of Bravo’s “The Actual Housewives of Salt Lake Metropolis.”
In 2023, amid a GOP-led effort to limit younger individuals’s entry to tug performances, the congressman kicked off Satisfaction month with a tribute on the Home flooring honoring “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the favored program that has been credited with bringing the artwork type to wider consideration and appreciation, together with amongst non-LGBTQ audiences.
“The present has served as a vital area to debate points round inclusion, trans rights, psychological well being and self price,” Garcia stated on the time. “And this message couldn’t be extra vital because the LGBTQ-plus group continues to battle for equality and acceptance.”
Final month, a few years after Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene famously displayed specific images of Hunter Biden that have been taken when the previous president’s son was scuffling with substance abuse, Garcia referenced the incident through the first listening to of the Home Subcommittee on Delivering on Authorities Effectivity.
After saying that he had a “dick pic” to share, a big picture of Musk’s face appeared on display screen behind the congressman, who then delivered a message about how the controversial tech billionaire was “attempting to remove your Medicare and Social Safety and doing all these terrible issues to you.”
Garcia defined that this type of creativity will help Democrats attain audiences that could be much less inclined to see or much less desperate to eat conventional sources of details about politics. “I believe that we now have to keep in mind that not all people reads The New York Occasions and watches cable information,” he stated. “You are able to do all of the cable information you need. You may get quoted in The New York Occasions as a lot as you need, and put out statements, [but] there’s an enormous phase of the inhabitants that’s by no means going to see that.”
“It’s vital that we use moments that talk to completely different teams to drive a message,” the congressman added. “As a result of I’m homosexual, and since I do know loads about popular culture and stuff — as a result of, you recognize, we wish to know loads about stuff like that, I believe it does assist. I’m nonetheless actively watching RuPaul. I observe issues that possibly the common political individual is just not following.”
This familiarity that comes with membership in marginalized communities can turn out to be particularly vital within the context of working in a legislative physique the place their rights and protections are beneath assault.
“There’s an energetic dismantling of our rights,” Garcia stated, “and homosexual marriage could possibly be on the road [along with] homosexual adoptions, educating historical past about leaders in our group in our colleges. All of that’s on the road, and so we’ve bought to be very clear about that.”
Reciprocally, the congressman stated, that duty additionally applies when individuals who belong to marginalized communities are current in these areas. “I speak to homosexual associates again house, and I remind them there’s an assault occurring proper now on trans individuals, on homosexual individuals,” he stated, “and it’s a must to get up to that and know that it’s your job to, like, get up and be loud, and also you simply can’t stay your life day by day considering all the things’s simply gonna get higher when Donald Trump’s not the president.”
Standing as much as Musk and the Trump administration may be dangerous
In fact, there’s all the time a threat of attracting destructive consideration, notably when a member of Congress stands as much as a public determine as polarizing and highly effective as Musk or Trump and with a message that’s designed to achieve audiences that may not in any other case watch clips from a listening to or flooring debate within the U.S. Home of Representatives.
In February, Garcia was focused by Ed Martin, an in depth Trump ally who shortly after his appointment by the president to function U.S. lawyer for D.C. issued a “letter of inquiry” to the congressman’s workplace over remarks he had made throughout an interview on CNN.
“When requested how Democrats can cease Elon Musk,” Martin defined, “you spoke clearly: ‘What the American public desires is for us to carry precise weapons to this bar battle. That is an precise battle for democracy.’”
He continued, “This sounds to some like a menace to Mr. Musk – an appointed consultant of President Donald Trump who you name a ‘dick’ – and authorities employees who work for him. Their considerations have led to this inquiry.”
In response, Garcia vowed that his criticism wouldn’t be stifled by makes an attempt to intimidate him with the specter of an investigation or costs by the Justice Division for feedback that any affordable individual would interpret as a metaphor or determine of speech somewhat than a legally actionable name for violence towards a public official.
The congressman instructed the Blade he believes the trouble was meant to silence not simply his criticism of Musk but in addition to create a chilling impact that might dissuade others from talking out publicly towards the billionaire.
“And so we’re going to proceed to name out what Elon Musk does, the harm he’s doing, and I’m actually not going to cease utilizing metaphors,” Garcia stated.
As of Tuesday, the congressman stated his workplace didn’t reply after their receipt of the letter from Martin, including that he had consulted with Home counsel “which is the correct method.”
Requested to share how he evaluates the dangers and potential rewards of talking out towards highly effective pursuits who lead a regime that’s bent on retribution towards critics and political enemies, Garcia stated that as a lifelong comedian e book aficionado, to some extent he sees taking over real-life villains in Congress as a crucial a part of his work on behalf of the individuals.
“I’ve discovered my values by comedian books,” he stated, “and I view the world very a lot by way of individuals which can be doing the suitable factor in reality and justice and other people which can be, I imply, who higher exemplifies Lex Luthor than of us like Elon Musk?”
Garcia stated that incomes the ire of Musk, Trump, and Republican colleagues just like the anti-trans extremist U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.) is an indication that he’s on the suitable path, including that these of us ought to really feel opposition from elected Democrats and different leaders together with the anger they may witness from X customers who may submit on the platform to vent their frustrations with its proprietor, demonstrators who may picket outdoors the White Home, or offended constituents who may present as much as their consultant’s city corridor conferences.
Moreover, he stated, “I’ve instructed different members of Congress this, whether or not we’re in a gathering or sharing a meal, I stated, ‘if you look again at this second, and we take into consideration who needs to be opposing Elon Musk and Donald Trump on this second, that’s us.”
Garcia additionally expressed gratitude for his “incredible, very supportive” household and shut associates together with friends from school who’re a part of his “nice assist system again house.” The congressman stated that whereas he and his husband break up up and are actually divorced, the 2 have remained “very shut” and share custody of their cat.
Assist additionally comes from strangers, he stated, who more and more have been approaching him in public to precise gratitude as a result of they really feel he’s giving voice to their emotions in regards to the administration. Actually, Garcia stated he feels extra embraced than ever earlier than by his group in Lengthy Seashore, together with in comparison with his tenure as mayor.
What’s subsequent for the Democratic Celebration?
Garcia is life like in regards to the extent to which he and his Democratic colleagues can maintain the administration accountable as long as they continue to be within the minority, the place they’re unable to even entry all of the paperwork and paperwork essential to do their work on the Oversight Committee not to mention go laws with out buy-in from Republicans.
On the similar time, he cautions that Democrats should not deal with the midterms to such an extent that they don’t acknowledge or name consideration to their opponents’ effort to intestine the federal authorities, inflicting hurt on a scale that will probably be troublesome to quantify for financial savings that will probably be used to carve out tax breaks for the nation’s richest individuals and companies.
As Democrats work to rebuild after their losses within the 2024 cycle, Garcia stated he has been influenced by proposals comparable to these floated just lately by Ezra Klein of The New York Occasions, who has urged the occasion to deal with making a politics of abundance as a substitute for the politics of shortage that empowers Republican coalitions.
The Democratic Celebration has “made it troublesome to construct housing, by over regulating, by not permitting there to be extra for everybody,” the congressman stated. “I’ve seen it occur in the way in which we do our environmental coverage, our housing insurance policies,” the latter being a problem that “I struggled with after I was mayor.”
“In our states and in our cities, everyone seems to be speaking about this query,” he stated. “I imply, possibly they’re not calling it ‘abundance’ in the way in which that Ezra Klein is referring to it,” however there was a whole lot of self-reflection and dialogue amongst Democrats about how “we now have been creating communities in states the place individuals are leaving,” the place as a result of they’ll now not afford to stay there, “working class individuals are leaving.”
Garcia in November helped to launch the bipartisan YIMBY caucus which works to advertise the event of recent housing throughout the nation, main the trouble with fellow founding co-chairs, U.S. Reps. Scott Peters (D-Calif.), Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Brittany Pettersen (D-Colo.), and Chuck Edwards (R-N.C.).
Together with substantive reforms designed to ship actual outcomes for working individuals, the congressman mentioned a number of the methods he wish to see Democrats refine their media technique, together with by making appearances on conservative media retailers like Fox Information — with out compromising or softening their message or coverage positions.
Watching former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spar with the community’s right-wing hosts, Garcia stated, was eye-opening by way of how the segments have been mutually helpful for the Democratic cupboard secretary and members of the right-wing cable community’s viewers.
The California Democrat stated that he was most likely the one visitor who appeared on Griff Jenkins’ 60-minute Fox Information program throughout his most up-to-date interview on March 1 with the community’s Washington primarily based nationwide correspondent to supply a take that was vital of Musk however grounded in information.
“It’s about reaching as many individuals as attainable and in as many venues as attainable,”
Garcia stated. “That’s why I’m happening Fox Information. And truthfully, I encourage all Democrats to do it. I be ok with our rising opposition. However, you recognize, it’s additionally taken us some time — I imply, we went by a very unhealthy loss, and I believe that a whole lot of the occasion equipment was unprepared for the way sturdy and quick Trump was going to be.”
