California attorney general pick pledges affront to Trump
Source: Associated Press
Jonathan J. Cooper and Don Thompson, Associated Press
Updated 6:58 pm, Thursday, December 1, 2016
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The longtime Democratic congressman slated to become California's next attorney general immediately took a combative stance against Republican President-elect Donald Trump's incoming administration after being named to the post Thursday, promising to defend the state's liberal stances on recreational marijuana, climate change, health care, immigration and criminal justice.
"If you want to take on a forward-leaning state that is prepared to defend its rights and interests, then come at us," U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra said hours after he was appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Becerra, 58, said he was "stunned" to be selected by the Democratic governor to succeed newly elected U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris. But he said he pledged during his telephone interview with the governor to build on some of the issues that Brown hopes to preserve as part of his record when he is termed out of office in two years.
That includes keeping California "the clean energy superpower of the country," protecting otherwise law-abiding immigrants even if they are in the country illegally, and building on Brown's changes that reduce mass prison incarceration, Becerra said. He also will seek to protect the state's broad implementation of President Barack Obama's health care law that Trump has pledged to unwind.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Rep-Xavier-Becerra-nominated-for-California-10647125.php
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