Garamendi Statement on Secretary Burgum and Attorney General Bondi Visit to Alcatraz

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-08), a senior California Democrat and former Deputy Secretary of the Interior, released the following statement in response to the news that Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum visited the Alcatraz Museum:

“This is plain just stupid. I have spent decades in policymaking and served as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of the Interior, and I have never seen such a craven political stunt.

“Alcatraz stopped being a prison in 1963 because of the deteriorating infrastructure and extreme operational costs. What Burgum and Bondi are visiting today has deteriorated 60 additional years and is only conducive to being a museum. They should know better than to turn a 60-year-old museum into a prison just because their boss got an idea from a movie he saw on television.

“This stunt is nothing more than a distraction from the countless mishaps Trump’s feckless administration is involved in. A distraction from his ‘Big Ugly Bill’ that strips healthcare from millions of Californians. A distraction from Trump taking away your children’s school lunches, raising your energy costs, cutting funding for public news stations, and stealing your hard-earned money to hand it to billionaires.

“I’m begging the news media and the public: don’t be distracted by this stunt. While they dredge up absurd headlines, they are destroying everything that makes this country great.”

###