Some of the good that Trump could accomplish that would benefit SoCal, representation of women in government, the process of creating a memorial on the site of a tragedy.
For an anxious California: The upside of a Trump presidency
To say that Donald Trump's presidency is a disappointment for many Californians would be an understatement.
According to the The New York Times, 61.5 percent of voters in the state chose Hillary Clinton. Clinton even beat Trump in Orange County, which hasn't gone blue since the Great Depression.
But there may be a silver lining for Californians still in shock from election night. A recent Desert Sun article cited "5 things Californians can like about Donald Trump" pointed to increased infrastructure spending and more funding for Veterans Affairs.
Take Two’s A Martinez discussed the possible upside of a Trump presidency is John Eastman, a professor of law and community service at Chapman University.
Here are some interview highlights:
Does Trump have more in common with his critics than they think?
Eastman: I do. For example, he wants to support infrastructure spending. He wants to fund a 50-year-old problem that has crippled our inner cities. How do you do that? You bring in infrastructure, you address the failing schools and you create an economy that can provide jobs. Part of that is regulatory reform to get the federal government's foot off the necks of people that are trying to start jobs and small businesses, but you also make sure we have an infrastructure.
How do we distinguish between campaign rhetoric and Trump's actual plans?
Eastman: I think we can bank on a couple of things. We're going to get increased border patrol, we're going to get some measure of a wall. That's going to create job opportunities in California because there will be a lot of new border agents hired. We're also going to get an increase in defense spending. Our defense spending and our military operation of the budget is the smallest its been since WWII. We have over-regulated [defense spending] in this state and have sent a lot of that industry out of state. And whether California can take advantage of the new increase and revival of our defense spending, will depend a lot on California.
How will Trump's stance on border control effect California?
Eastman: We know for a fact that there's a lot of drug trafficking, human trafficking and other kinds of crime coming across that border, as well as terrorism. And increased border control and security is going to benefit those most susceptible to being victims of those crimes. Where does that occur? Most often, in the inner cities. . .and unfortunately largely minority communities. They will benefit immensely if we try to get a handle on this problem.
One of Trump's criticisms of the Obama Administration was the perception that the country's military is weak, so how will Trump's position affect veterans, the way we take care of them and how that impacts California?
Eastman: There's going to be a serious assessment of the way we deliver health care services to our veterans. . . Rebuilding the military and restoring our presence in the world--not aggressively, not imperialistically, not to take our views of democracy and impose them on anybody else, but to ensure the conditions for freedom that will provide for security for the U.S. first and foremost.
Millennials see a more diverse, unified future for American politics
More than half of voters under 30 cast ballots for Hillary Clinton in this election; nearly 40 percent voted for Donald Trump.
Divided though they may be, Millennials and Generation Z will wield considerable political power in the coming years.
So what do they make of the current political landscape, and what do they hope for the future?
Take Two asked two.
Mary Perez
Mary, you've been our resident young-Republican for over a year now, and you've been a never-Trump person from day one. Donald Trump is now the president-elect and Republicans run the House and Senate. How are you feeling about the state of your party right now?
On the morning of November 9th, I thought I was going to wake up to President Clinton, but I was so wrong.
I feel a lot of ambivalence. I'm happy that I don't have to endure four years of Secretary Clinton as president, but also, a bit concerned about what President Trump — I'll have to get used to saying that — what President Trump will look like for the next four years.
I am happy that the House and Senate remain in the control of the Republican Party, and I hope that Speaker Ryan and Mitch McConnell will work across party lines and create actual change.
There's one thing that commentators have mentioned over and over: that both parties have, to one degree or another, lost touch with their bases. If you were asked for a prescription for reforming and revitalizing your party, what would you recommend?
Part of me thinks we need to remain unified as a party, but I also think we need to continue to promote diversity and inclusion without alienating the white, blue-collar voters who feel like they don't have a place in the Democratic Party.
We need to make sure that our party represents all Americans: all Americans of color, all Americans of class, and I think going forward in 2018, we have to make sure that we're going to hold our Senate and our House leadership, and maybe in 2024 run a candidate like Marco Rubio again who might appeal to a different, diverse demographic of voters.
Kelsey Brewer
What was the biggest thing that you think Democrats underestimated this race?
I think the first one is we expected millennial voters to come out much stronger than they did. I think the surprise demographic was white women. That was a group that, historically, had gone for Obama both in 2008 and 2012. Not only did she lose that demographic, she lost it by about 10 points, basically guaranteeing that she was not going to be president.
What do you think happened there?
It's a combination of things. I think they may have taken that demographic as a granted, playing on the historical nature of a Hillary Clinton run as the first female candidate of a major party.
I think the other piece that Democrats have to work on moving into 2020 and even 2018 is beginning to talk about things like classism as much as they talk about things like racism, sexism, homophobia, Islamophobia, because I think that, for some white voters, they don't see a place for themselves in the Democratic Party because there isn't that conversation about issues that directly impact their lives.
We have to start speaking to the issues that turn them out and, unfortunately, that's what Donald Trump did very successfully.
Press the blue play button above to hear the full conversation.
(Questions and answers have been edited for clarity and brevity.)
Trump lawyers to begin settlement talks on Trump University
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Donald Trump's attorneys on Thursday agreed to enter settlement talks in a class-action fraud lawsuit involving the president-elect and his now-defunct Trump University, raising the possibility of a quick end to the 6 ½-year-old case just before it goes to trial.
Daniel Petrocelli, Trump's lead attorney on the case, also asked to delay the trial to early next year, saying Trump needed time to work on the transition to the presidency.
"The good news is that he was elected president. The bad news is that he has even more work to do now," Petrocelli told U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel.
The lawsuit alleging Trump University failed on its promise to teach success in real estate begins in San Diego on Nov. 28 before Curiel, an Indiana-born jurist who Trump accused of bias during the presidential campaign for his Mexican heritage.
Both sides accepted Curiel's offer to work with U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller, who is based in San Diego, on a possible settlement.
"I can tell you right now I'm all ears," Petrocelli told Curiel.
Patrick Coughlin, an attorney for the former students who sued, told reporters that previous attempts failed. "We've been miles apart," he said outside the courthouse.
Curiel didn't signal how he would rule on the request for a trial delay, but he encouraged efforts to settle. He has been reluctant to postpone it any longer.
The judge said more than 100 potential jurors would be in court Nov. 28, and nine would be picked to begin hearing arguments no more than two days later. He expects both sides to finish presenting their cases around Dec. 14.
Petrocelli said it was unlikely that Trump would attend the trial, and Curiel said he didn't expect he would.
The attorneys argued for nearly three hours over tentative rulings that Curiel issued earlier in the day on what evidence to allow jurors to hear.
Curiel said he was prepared to deny a request by Trump's attorneys to prohibit statements made by and about their client during his campaign. The highly unusual petition would apply to Trump's tweets, a video of Trump making sexually predatory comments about women, his tax history, revelations about his private charitable foundation and public criticism of the judge.
Curiel noted Trump's attorneys didn't specify what campaign-related evidence they wanted to exclude and that he would consider specific objections at trial. Trump's attorneys didn't challenge the judge further on that point, but they objected to many other decisions, including his refusal to allow many customer surveys and Trump's claims of a 98 percent customer approval rating.
The lawsuit filed in 2010 on behalf of former customers says Trump University gave seminars and classes across the country under the guise of being an accredited school, which it wasn't, and pressured people to spend up to $35,000 on mentorships from Trump's "hand-picked" instructors.
The claims largely mirror another class-action complaint in San Diego and a lawsuit in New York.
Petrocelli told reporters in May that Trump planned to attend most, if not all, of the trial and would testify.
At the May hearing, Petrocelli asked for a trial after Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, but the judge raised concerns about distractions if Trump won the election.
The attorney said then that the period between the election and swearing-in is extremely hectic for a president-elect but that it was preferable to holding a trial during the campaign.
To hear the full conversation between Alex Cohen and Elliot Spagat click on the audio embedded at the top of this post.
Automakers react to President-elect Trump
During his campaign for president, Donald Trump vowed to cancel U.S. involvement with the international Paris climate accord. He said he would renegotiate - or even terminate - the North American Free Trade Agreement. And the President-elect suggested he might propose tariffs on imports from some of our trading partners.
Now auto makers around the globe are reacting.
Immediately following the election, Ford Motor Co. issued a statement of congratulations to Trump and a pledge "to support economic growth and jobs," despite Trump's condemnation of the company for plans to relocate its small car manufacturing operations from the U.S. to Mexico. The association representing German auto makers Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes-Benz expressed “fear” that the U.S. would focus on its own economy to the detriment of international trade.
Then came Thursday, and a letter to Trump's transition team from the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers (which represents all three Detroit auto makers as well as BMW, Mercedes and Toyota, among others). The letter expressed support for relaxing the more stringent fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions standards put in place during the Obama administration. The United Auto Workers union also said it supported Trump's plans to impose a 35% tariff on cars imported from Mexico and renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Already, Mexico is home to dozens of car manufacturing plants, many of them built in the years following NAFTA's 1994 implementation. By 2020, Mexico had been projected to build 25 percent of all vehicles sold in the United States, according to IHS Automotive. This year alone, BMW broke ground on a $2.2 billion factory in Mexico to build 150,000 cars annually, and Audi inaugurated a $1.3 billion facility to build electric SUVs.
What 2016 means for the future of women in politics
Election Day this week came as a shock to those who hoped Hillary Clinton would become the first female commander-in-chief.
In her concession speech Wednesday morning, the former Secretary of State addressed that disappointment:
"I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday, someone will and hopefully sooner than we might think right now."
Further down the ticket, there were more disappointments for women in politics.
According to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University, the number of female governors in the U.S. dropped from six to five. The number of women in Congress stayed flat, with one gain in the Senate, and one loss in the House.
In California, with some races still too close to be called, women are expected to lose four seats in the state legislature.
The news wasn't all bad, though. More women of color were elected to Congress this year than ever before. And in Los Angeles, for the first time ever, women will make up a majority on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors.
So what can 2016 tell us about the future of women in politics?
Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics, says one lesson to take away is that gender does still play a role in voters' decisions.
"Donald Trump ran as the most masculine candidate that we've seen in quite a while running for the presidency, and that adhered to the really typical masculine credentials expected of presidential office-holders," Dittmar says. "And it worked out for him."
On the other hand, Dittmar says, Hillary Clinton had to contend with a an opponent "who questioned her stamina, which is tied to feminine vulnerability." She also had to contend with Donald Trump's remark that she "just didn't look presidential. That is, if not overtly, at least implicitly gendered."
Dittmar says the fact that gender was a factor, if not the deciding one, in the presidential election, is one that Americans will have to grapple with.
"We have to figure out ways in which we can accept new images of what it means to be presidential," Dittmar says. "I think Hillary Clinton, along with the women who've run before her, have helped to chip away at those images, but we still have some of those deep-seated expectations that I think played a role."
Rachel Michelin, Executive Director of the bipartisan nonprofit organization California Women Lead, says another challenge for women in politics is that they're currently playing by rules that were written by men.
"We need to do a better job, even here in California, even at the local level, in preparing women for what it really takes to win," Michelin says. "And then hopefully as women do get into these positions of power, they will also look for ways to engage women, so that we can start changing the rules to make it a little bit more even for men and women when they do decide to run."
To hear the full interview with Rachel Michelin and Kelly Dittmar, click the blue player above.
Singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen dies at 82
US and Mexico face off in World Cup qualification
The United States soccer team take on Mexico, Friday in a a crucial World Cup qualifying match in Ohio.
The teams have one of the longest-running rivalries in sports, going back over eighty years.
The two nation's political relationship has sometimes intensified that rivalry for both players and fans. And now with Donald Trump's presidential win, some wonder what that tension will look like going forward?
For more on the match, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Andrea Canales, soccer writer for ESPN.
To hear the full interview, click the Blue Arrow above.
Designing a public memorial after tragedy
The city of Orlando is in the process of trying to buy the Pulse nightclub where 49 people were killed and more than 50 injured in a mass shooting last June.
In California, the first anniversary of the San Bernardino shooting is approaching. Officials there are still trying to determine the best way to memorialized those who lost their lives.
For more on how to construct a public memorial, Take Two's A Martinez spoke with Daniel Libeskind. He's designed public spaces around the globe, including the World Trade Center master plan in New York City and the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany.
To hear the full interview, click on the Blue Arrow above.