Two big-name California lawmakers held a town-hall event on the Central Coast Tuesday evening.
Sen. Adam Schiff and Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-24) discussed their work in Congress and took questions from some of the hundreds who attended the event at Cuesta College.
The two discussed a handful of issues over roughly 90 minutes, including questions about Medicare, the environment, tariffs, the war in Gaza, and the state of the nation during President Trump’s second term.
"But what does give me hope in the midst of all of this is," Sen. Schiff said in response to a question from an attendee, "we are starting to see real acts of courage and they are contagious in the best of ways."
Schiff cited Justice Department officials quitting rather than engaging in "unethical conduct" and some recent Supreme Court rulings as reasons for maintaining hope.
Nearly 2,000 people RSVP'd for the event at the Harold J. Miossi Cultural and Performing Arts Center. The two lawmakers spoke at an overflow event afterwards.
Schiff — seen by many as a key anti-Trump figure during the president's first term — is in his first term as senator after serving as representative for the Burbank and Glendale areas. Schiff was the chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for several years, helping lead President Trump's first impeachment inquiry involving Ukraine.
The town-hall event was the most recent of Schiff's stops throughout the state since his swearing-in.
