During a recent trip to Germany, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti described the president of the United States as “a bad person” who “wants” Americans to “be living so fearfully,” then instructed his audience to “destroy the idea” that Donald Trump represents the country he was elected to lead.
“Being here in Berlin is very inspiring to me because while I’ve been here, I’ve been trying to show our German friends that one man doesn’t speak for us,” Garcetti told a roomful of Americans who currently reside in Europe.
Garcetti’s comments were made in a speech to the Berlin chapter of Democrats Abroad — an organization that describes itself as “the official Democratic Party arm for the millions of Americans living outside the United States.” He spoke at the request of Tom Perez, whom Garcetti endorsed to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee earlier this year.
“You will not beat President Trump by saying he’s a bad person, though he is,” Garcetti told the group, while ironically proposing Democrats refrain from individual attacks.
“Every tweet that he puts out, everything that he says sends us into tailspins.”
The mayor was in Germany for six days — a trip he made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Los Angeles and Berlin. However, Garcetti spent at least one morning encouraging Democrats overseas to organize against the Trump administration back home.
“This is a growth moment for activism,” Garcetti told attendees. “This is one of the only silver linings for this horrible moment, otherwise, of national leadership.”
The L.A. mayor — deemed to be a rising star in the Party — is being discussed as a possible Democratic contender to recapture the White House. According to the New York Times, “allies of Mr. Garcetti acknowledged that national donors had broached the subject of 2020 but said that was the extent of his attention to the race.”
While Garcetti denies running for the presidency, he has been a featured speaker at several anti-Trump rallies that have attracted large crowds in Southern California — including the Women’s March, the Resist Los Angeles march, and the L.A. Pride Resist March.
“More people want to be engaged, involved and active more than ever before,” Garcetti reflected. “Sometimes it takes something horrible like the election of President Trump for us to recognize and realize that. But it will be an ongoing fight.”
Garcetti revealed that he’s been studying Barack Obama’s past speeches, noticing a recurring theme of reaching out to the little guy.
“We need to reclaim that position as being there for the underdog because Americans will vote for the person who does champion the underdog,” Garcetti explained. “That was taken by a man who is anything but an underdog, a man who is anything but helpful to the working class, a man who has never stood for his word being anything, and we have to destroy the idea that he stands for the American people.”
Garcetti’s disparaging remarks about President Trump were first pointed out on Twitter by a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. However, the outlet has not yet published a report. The paper also failed to disclose that Garcetti was out of the country two days after his speech to Democrats Abroad, when a power plant explosion in Los Angeles left far more than 140,000 residents without electricity during a triple-digit heat wave.
Follow Jeffrey Cawood on Twitter @Near_Chaos.