Three of the 13 mail bombs sent this week to public figures and now traced to a Trump supporter in Florida were sent to Californians who have been critical of the president. In the most recent case, authorities on Friday were examining suspicious packages mailed to Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris and billionaire political activist Tom Steyer.
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Also on Friday, authorities arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc, a South Floridian with a decades-long criminal past that includes an arrest for making a bomb threat.
Late Wednesday, a similar package addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) was discovered at a Los Angeles postal facility and FBI officials said the device resembled those recovered in New York, Washington, D.C., and elsewhere.
Here’s a brief look at the three Californias who have been targeted:
Kamala Harris
- She was born in Oakland in 1964 to a Tamil Indian mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris, and Donald Harris, a Stanford University economics professor who had emigrated from Jamaica in 1961;
- Her mother was a cancer researcher, originally from Madras, India;
- Harris was elected to the Senate in 2016, the second black woman elected to the chamber;
- She served as California’s attorney general from 2011 to 2017;
- When she assumed that position, Harris became California’s first female and first black attorney general;
- She graduated from Howard University in 1986 and then earned her law degree at UC Hastings College of Law in 1989;
- Harris is married to California attorney Douglas Emhoff;
- She has two stepchildren;
- Her younger sister, Maya Harris, is a political analyst for MSNBC;
- Her brother-in-law is Tony West, General Counsel at Uber;
- Harris has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2020;
- After the device was found on Friday, Harris’ office released a statement, saying “at this moment, it is incumbent upon leaders across the political spectrum to take seriously the power they hold. It is the responsibility of our leaders to use their role as public figures to elevate our discourse and bring people together.”
Tom Steyer
- After founding Farallon Capital, an investment firm based in San Francisco, Steyer became wealthy by managing $20 billion by the time he left the firm, which took high risks on distressed assets in volatile markets;
- Known as one of Trump’s fiercest critics, Steyer’s Need to Impeach movement earlier this year collected more than five million signatures from Americans calling for Trump’s outster;
- “Yeah, we’re making a big fuss – because something is wrong,” Steyer said, calling Trump a “clear and present danger. “Everyone’s acting as though it’s somehow impolite to stand up for American democracy;”
- In an interview with Rolling Stone, Steyer said ”we feel it’s important to stand up for the American democracy. It’s not much more complicated than that. We believe fighting against a reckless and lawless president is not something that will turn off voters. In fact, doing that kind of thing is the way that you build faith and trust. The way we see impeachment is: We are telling the truth about the most important political issue of the day.”
- After leaving Farallon in 2012, Steyer founded NextGen Climate in an effort to “to prevent climate disaster and promote prosperity for all Americans; the group was later rebranded to NextGen America, a reflection of its broader focus on opposing Trump and supporting a range of progressive policies;
- Steyer spent more money on the 2014 and 2016 elections than any other single donor, according to Investor’s Business Daily: more than $73 million in 2014 and about $100 million in 2016;
- His net worth earlier this year was estimated by Forbes at $1.61 billion;
- After Friday’s bomb scare, Steyer said “we are seeing a systematic attack on our democracy and our rule of law that extends much further than just one isolated terrorist in Florida. Whether it’s voter suppression, voter intimidation, attacks on our free press, gerrymandering or attempted violence — the trust and norms that are the actual basis for our civil society and political system are being eroded.”
Maxine Waters
- Waters is the Democratic representative from California’s 43rd Congressional District in the U.S. House;
- She began her political career in the California State Assembly, serving there from 1977 to 1991;
- The Office of Congressional Ethics charged her in 2010 with improper requests for a meeting with federal officials for a bank that her husband owned shares in and had previously served as a director for; the committee announced in the fall of 2012 that Waters had not violated House rules;
- Liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington added Waters to its list of corrupt members of Congress in its 2005, 2006, 2009 and 2011 reports, according to Wikipedia; and the non-partisan group Citizens Against Government Waste named Waters the June 2009 “Porker of the Month due to her intention to obtain an earmark for the Maxine Waters Employment Preparation Center,” said Wikipedia;
- Waters has been a lightning rod for controversy for years, as she has criticized then-President Obama for not doing enough to help blacks and praised Cuba’s former leader, Fidel Castro, for putting his country on a path toward democracy;
- Earlier this year, Waters was widely attacked by people on both sides of the aisle for saying Trump’s cabinet members and other supporters should be harassed when they go out in public and even at their homes;
- That prompted Trump to tweet this:
Congresswoman Maxine Waters, an extraordinarily low IQ person, has become, together with Nancy Pelosi, the Face of the Democrat Party. She has just called for harm to supporters, of which there are many, of the Make America Great Again movement. Be careful what you wish for Max!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018
