Speaking to a crowd of supporters, Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, urged the crowd not to listen to the constant stories or claims from President Donald Trump and his administration.
“It’s important to not react to his [expletive] on a daily basis,” Carbajal told a packed room on Saturday.
Carbajal and other elected officials gathered for a town hall at the Unitarian Society of Santa Barbara to encourage residents in the face of the returning Trump Administration.
The event was organized by Indivisible Santa Barbara and Commit to Democracy.
The meeting was held in multiple rooms due to the size of the crowd. Some residents were in the main church while others watched the event on a screen in the parish hall or listened through speakers in the courtyard.
The crowd was estimated to be close to 1,000 people, according to organizers. Some of the attendees held signs opposing mass deportations, the Trump Administration, or Elon Musk.
The meeting was attended by Carbajal, Senator Monique Limón, Assemblymember Gregg Hart, and chair of the Board of Supervisors, Laura Capps.
The town hall was meant to share the current plans by Democrat leaders to oppose the wave of executive orders issued by President Trump since his inauguration.
Carbajal said that the plan moving forward is to challenge the Trump Administration in the courts, stall them in Congress, and work on improving life for residents on the South Coast.
“You first elected me to Congress eight years ago. On the same night that individual in the White House won for the first time. I was forged in fire in the first term of his administration, but we are together and more prepared as a result,” Carbajal said.
The congressman urged residents not to be bogged down and respond to numerous stories like annexing Greenland. Instead, Carbajal encouraged residents to focus on the administration’s actions and events behind the scenes.
Carbajal then called out Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE, whom he described as “an unelected billionaire” and his “cronies.”
Carbajal continued by saying he and other Democrats are working to investigate Musk and DOGE and how much access they were given to government systems.
He then thanked the courts for stopping DOGE from gaining further access and said that attorneys general across the country are working to slow down the Trump Administration.
During a Q&A, Carbajal answered questions from the audience about how the Democrats plan to move forward and what residents should expect.
The audience replied with gasps and anger when Carbajal answered a question about potential cuts to Medicare by saying he believes the Trump Administration will attempt to go after the program.
In her address, state Sen. Monique Limón explained different protections the California state legislature passed to prevent state funds from being used to enforce immigration laws.
Limón also stated that rights like access to abortion or marriage equality have been enshrined in the state constitution, which makes it harder to go after on a federal level than state laws.
She finished by saying that officials are working with schools, universities and federal partners.
“(This is) all to ensure that California continues to move forward, that California continues to advance, and that we protect our community from being torn apart by racist, homophobic and horrific comments and rhetoric that is out there,” Limón said to cheers from the crowd. “Because that is not who we are.”
One of the attendees of the event was Mahil Senathirajah, who came due to his concerns over the Trump Administration and what it means for democracy.
Senathirajah said that coming into the event he was feeling down, but that he was leaving inspired.
“A lot of people been feeling, myself included, kind of [in] despair and kind of a sense of detachment about the whole thing, and I think this helped address that,” Senathirajah said.
