Trump cabinet appointee gets honored on California Senate floor. Not everyone was happy.

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SENATE GOP HONORS OPENLY GAY TRUMP CABINET MEMBER AS DEMS WALK OUT

Three weeks after California Senate Republicans sat out a vote declaring June LGBTQ Pride Month, Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, R-Santee, took to the floor Monday afternoon to honor the first openly gay man to serve in a presidential cabinet. Ric Grenell of Palm Springs served as former President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Germany before being appointed acting director of national intelligence in February 2020. Grenell stepped down from both posts three months later.

Jones praised Grenell for his lengthy record of public service, and noted the historical nature of Grenell’s appointment to the cabinet. As acting director of national intelligence, Grenell oversaw 17 different intelligence agencies.

The Senate floor offered mute applause for Grenell, a Republican who once contemplated running against Gov. Gavin Newsom in the 2021 recall election.

After appearing on the Senate floor, Grenell joined Assemblyman Bill Essayli, R-Riverside, Jones and other Republican lawmakers on the west steps of the Capitol for a press conference.

One person on the Senate floor who didn’t applaud the former ambassador was Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco.

Earlier on Monday, Wiener, who also is openly gay, wrote in a tweet that “today, GOP is honoring Richard Grenell on our Senate floor, after having protested our actual Pride celebration. Grenell is a self-hating gay man. He’s a scam artist pink-washer for Trump & spreads anti-LGBTQ, anti-vax, election-denier conspiracy theories.”

Wiener joined other Senate Democrats in walking off the floor when Grenell was honored, according to LA Times journalist Mackenzie Mays. Essayli, who himself walked off the Assembly floor when drag nun Sister Roma was being honored earlier this month, tweeted angrily about the incident Monday.

“What a bunch of intolerant hypocrites. This proves that Pride month has nothing to do with celebrating members of the LBGT community. It’s all about advancing an extreme anti-American and anti-parent agenda,” Essayli wrote.

Grenell has a history of making false and inflammatory statements, including accusations that then-President Barack Obama secretly surveilled the Trump campaign in 2016, something Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler called “a bunch of unfounded conspiracy theories.”

A spokesman for Grenell did not respond to The Bee’s request for comment.

GAS GOUGE LAW GOES INTO EFFECT

Via Grace Scullion...

Though gas prices are down by over $1.50 from last June, average gasoline prices in Sacramento rose 6 cents in the past month — did you notice?

Newsom is hoping to curb any more price creep with a new law that went into effect yesterday that establishes a new oversight branch, the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, within the California Energy Commission. The group will create a penalty for oil companies found to be gouging prices and refer oil companies to the Attorney General for prosecution if found to be engaging in illegal practices. The law was created in a special session Newsom called last year to address skyrocketing prices at the pump.

Back in March, The Sacramento Bee reported that consumer advocates said the oil industry’s lobby weakened some provisions of the bill – and spent $72 million over four years doing it.

CALIFORNIANS ARE PRETTY CHILL ABOUT LEGAL WEED, SURVEY SAYS

Seven years ago, more than half of Californians (57%) voted yes on Proposition 64 to legalize adult-use marijuana in the Golden State; cannabis has been legal to sell recreationally since 2018.

So are voters having a bad trip as a result? Not hardly, says the Public Policy Institute of California.

In a blog post about their June survey, the PPIC found that 64% of Californians said that marijuana use should be legal — a record high. That’s up significantly from PPIC’s September 2010 poll, which found only 47% in favor of legal weed. That year, voters narrowly defeated Proposition 19, a previous attempt to legalize recreational cannabis.

These days, support for legal adult-use marijuana is mostly partisan — 75% of Democrats and independents say so, while only 40% of Republicans believe in legalization. The higher (pardon the pun) the education level of the voter, the more likely they are to support legalization. Just over half (51%) of those with a high school diploma support it, compared to 74% of those with a college degree.

Despite marijuana’s popular support, it remains banned in a majority of the state; 61% of cities and counties have laws on the books banning cannabis retail, according to PPIC. And while Californians support legal weed in theory, they are less likely to support marijuana retail in their own community, with just 56% saying they support local weed businesses.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Heading into a big week in Sacramento: Budget Trailer Bills, tough committee votes, and Swearing in of New California Speaker @AsmRobertRivas Being an elected legislator is not always easy, but it is always interesting!”

- Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva, D-Fullerton, via Twitter.

Best of The Bee:

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic legislative leaders have negotiated major elements of the state budget — although they remain at odds over Newsom’s eleventh-hour push to streamline large-scale infrastructure projects, via Lindsey Holden and Maggie Angst.

• The California state reparations task force — which has been at work researching possible reparation for Black Californians who descended from slaves — is winding down after two years of work before making its final proposal to the Legislature before July, via Marcus D. Smith.

• Last week, Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis posted an ad slamming California — its decreasing population, crisis-level homelessness, crime in San Francisco and gas prices. “California’s liberal governance is a disaster,” DeSantis’ campaign tweeted alongside the video. But what do Californians have to say about their home state? Via Grace Scullion.

• As state lawmakers haggle over the next iteration of the budget, members of California’s largest state worker union are scrambling to finalize a new contract before their current deal expires Friday — the same day as the state’s budget deadline, via Maya Miller.