An intimate crowd made up of mostly old friends, some community organizers and a handful of reporters sat in creaky chairs in a yet-to-be-opened, albeit swanky Altar Society Brewing Company in Downtown Long Beach to greet Congressman Robert Garcia for a town hall Tuesday night.
The former Long Beach mayor was welcomed with cheerful applause, many a “thank you” and “we’re so proud of you” and very few Long Beach-centric questions.
According to a statement from his team, Garcia was planning on speaking about “the issues facing our community and the work he is doing for Long Beach.” Instead, Garcia spoke about his seven months in Washington as a freshman congressman and took questions from the crowd for over an hour where no inquiry was too broad or too silly.
He recognized many faces in the crowd, many of whom cheered at every answer, and he would often stop to hug or wave to friends in the middle of questions.
Garcia galvanized the crowd in his introduction, speaking about the far-right and their attacks on the LGBTQ community and immigrants. He said his main focus so far has been issues surrounding ports, the COVID-19 pandemic, LGBTQ issues, immigration and government oversight.
Eight years serving as mayor of Long Beach did not prepare Garcia for working with people with “extreme” views on the right, he said, some of whom deny science and belittle LGBTQ folks.
“I realized really quickly that if I spent the next few years trying to work with these folks and be bipartisan for 10 years … we won’t have a country anymore,” Garcia said. “They’re not interested in the country we built. This is the moment we actually have to fight back and push back against these awful ideas meant to push us backwards.”
A couple of members from Jewish community groups asked Garcia why he attended a trip to Israel earlier this month with Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries. Garcia replied that he’s not “an expert” in relations between the United States and Israel, but added that he supports a two-state solution where Palestinians are able to live in freedom.
He said the trip is traditional for freshman Congress members, and as the President of the freshman class, he felt he needed to attend.
The crowd livened up at the next question, which regarded aliens and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs), previously known as unidentified flying objects (UFOs). As head of the government oversight democratic subcommittee, Garcia had a role in the first-ever government hearing on alien objects which occurred in July.
“It was wild,” Garcia said of the hearing. “I don’t know what they are or not. What I know is we have commercial pilots saying they’re seeing objects they cannot identify … and they’re moving in ways that, as far as they know, American technology does not move.”
The congressman also stated that in the future he will take part in a classified briefing on UAPs.
Garcia was met with a handful of questions that were loosely tied to Long Beach about port regulations and public transportation.
He mentioned a few times that with the current Congress—which is majority Republican—measures to increase port regulations on carbon emissions and a measure that would fund a high-speed railway through California are not likely to pass.
“While we work together, they will steamroll us backwards,” Garcia said. “We have to be aggressive and uplifting and protective of democracy.”
When asked about the possibility of raising living wages for people, Garcia said that the most obvious solution is to cut the Pentagon’s budget, which is currently at $842 billion for 2024. It’s a $100 billion increase from 2022, and Garcia pointed out that Congress has never decreased the Pentagon’s budget, despite them failing to pass an audit review for over a decade.
He compared the Pentagon’s budget process to a city, saying that making cuts in one area is sometimes necessary in order to fund other needed improvements such as schools and worker wages.
“When I was mayor of Long Beach, during hard years we had to cut budgets, whether it was police or fire, we would cut 1, 2, 5%,” Garcia said. “If cities and states across the country can make cuts, why is it that the Pentagon’s budget can’t ever be decreased?”
Each of Garcia’s responses ended with a call to action to protect democracy and continue fighting for rights for immigrants, blue collar workers, and LGBTQ youth and communities while challenging powers in Washington.
The audience replied with cheers and whoops to each answer, and Garcia ended the night by speaking with local friends and colleagues.
Please note that many who RSVPd were not allowed to enter the room, hence the many, many empty seats. This supposed “town hall” was reserved for those who parrot Dr Garcia’s vacuous opinions. He truly is the West Coast’s biggest liar and schemer.
First, this is the second article I have read of Samantha Diaz and what a joy it is to read Journalist information instead of the “Entertainment” we receive from the alleged news sources. 2. I do not understand why the “Comment” section is closed for former articles (example:”Long Beach council sets Concealed Carry Weapon license fees” March, 2023). 3. I wish i could find out when our elected officials are holding a gathering, I would love to attend to provide respectable balance to the Q&A. Balance Budgets, stop spending what we do not have. The Federal Government has a role, Protect our Boarders, Foreign Relations and Interstate Commerce. Each state did and should rule over the intra-state affairs.