I recently interviewed Amy Phan West, a councilwoman in Westminster, who is looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Derek Tran in California\u2019s 45th congressional district, which includes parts of Los Angeles and Orange counties. She is a Republican.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During our talk, Phan West\u2019s policy proposals were either undermotivated or malformed, but more troubling than that, her beliefs demonstrated an indifference to facts, and a paranoid and conspiratorial disposition with respect to the threat of communism, her colleagues in Westminster\u2019s government, and the federal government itself, leading me to believe that she is unfit for Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Land Woes<\/p>\n
Starting off, she suggested fixing the housing and homelessness crisis by selling off federal lands controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe we have the housing crisis, right? And the homeless problem in the state of California. And how to fix that, for me, I\u2019m thinking of releasing BLM land \u2026 The government, the federal, own 90% across this nation. And if we just release 3-5% across this nation, we can fix the housing crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure where Phan West got her statistics, but the federal government does not own 90% of the land in the U.S. \u2013 it owns approximately 28% of it<\/a> and BLM lands account for only about 10%.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n BLM lands are typically not desirable for development for the sort of housing that would lower housing costs because they tend to be in remote areas with difficult terrain and building out the required infrastructure would inflate costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n There is little indication that releasing 3-5% of BLM lands would do much to ease the housing crisis and there are a host of other problems with this proposal, including building in wildfire-prone areas, but we\u2019ll leave it at that.\u00a0<\/p>\n Immigration<\/p>\n Phan West has expressed a desire to fix the immigration system so I asked about what sort of reforms she had in mind. Unfortunately, her response was vague, instead claiming that she\u2019ll do as her constituents desire \u2013 frankly, she seemed unsure of what her position actually is on the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI believe there is a process, there is a right way to do it \u2026 I want to hear the voice of the people in my district on this matter. I haven\u2019t completely hear everyone\u2019s voice on this. But as for what I\u2019ve been hearing is that people want the legal access \u2026 They don\u2019t want the illegal immigrant coming here, taking jobs away from those who are citizen \u2026 But then whatever fits in my district and my constituent wants, that\u2019s what I will do.\u201d<\/p>\n I asked if she supported deporting illegal immigrants who have lived in the country for many years without criminal records. Here again, her response was confusingly vague \u2013 she stated that we need to \u201clook into it\u201d to determine \u201cthe best way and the fair way\u201d but added that Americans are frustrated that they are losing their jobs to illegal immigrants.\u00a0<\/p>\n Phan West then added, \u201cBut then also, if you\u2019re here, you know, you came here, you know, my question is, why don\u2019t you want to take the citizenship to be a citizen of a country that you came here and you love \u2026 might as well be a part of it, right? Do it the right way. And if you\u2019re here for a long time, you have no criminal record, why don\u2019t you take the test? It\u2019s so easy. You know, it\u2019s basically learning the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n Contrary to Phan West\u2019s naive claims that it\u2019s \u201ceasy\u201d, unless you\u2019re a high-skilled worker or already married to a U.S. citizen, obtaining a green card, let alone citizenship, can take years or even decades. One would hope that someone who is advertising on her campaign website<\/a> that she aims to fix the immigration system would know a bit more about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Issues on the Westminster City Council\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s never a good sign when I have to ask a candidate about their ability to get along with others but this is the case with Phan West. In her time in Westminster\u2019s city council, she has had an awful relationship with all but one of her fellow councilmembers, with meetings often devolving into chaotic and explosive exchanges, leading to them voting to censure her \u2013 she then proceeded to call them \u201cChinese communist dictators\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Her antics became such a problem that her fellow councilmembers also had to sue<\/a> her and fellow councilmember NamQuan Nguyen to stop them from disrupting meetings and speaking when they did not have the floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Phan West, her fellow councilmembers are jealous of her and she\u2019s not the problem:<\/p>\n \u201cI think what it is, is with local elected official, I think the sad thing is \u2026 what I\u2019ve realized is that locally they have only a few power, right? Low power. And yet they\u2019re freaking out over it and they feel threatened by that power \u2026\u00a0 For me, I\u2019m like, this is so petty. If you\u2019re jealous of me, insecure about your position, then that\u2019s on you. I can\u2019t change your insecurity \u2026 Is that they have the majority and they\u2019re controlling and they don\u2019t want that power be taken away or for me to ever shine. And I mean, that\u2019s on them, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n Recordings<\/a> of Phan West\u2019s outbursts provided to the court show Phan speaking incessantly and yelling over others, while calling them \u201cdictators\u201d and \u201cGestapo\u201d. The fact that they have to constantly ask her to be quiet and wait her turn to speak \u2013 like a child \u2013 suggests that she\u2019s too immature to be on the Westminster City Council, let alone Congress.<\/p>\n Phan West\u2019s attempted bribery<\/p>\n Adding to Phan West\u2019s troubled record in Westminster, she was charged last year with attempted bribery of parking enforcement officers who were towing one of her husband\u2019s cars. A judge later granted a diversion, which allowed Phan West to avoid the misdemeanor conviction and jail time in exchange for community service and an ethics class.<\/p>\n Here again, she did nothing wrong and everyone else is the problem. \u201cSo basically, this is political witch hunt. Political attack. It\u2019s politically motivated.\u201d<\/p>\n After elaborating that her disruption of the power and money dynamics in Westminster may have played a motivating factor in her prosecution, she suggested that there was a conspiracy against her on the part of several members of the government.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, if you know, the DA is working with the judge and the attorney. You know that, right? To work out a deal with everything. So all of them are in bed together.\u201d<\/p>\n I asked her, \u201cSo you think that the judge, prosecutor, maybe other members in the council are motivating this prosecution?\u201d\u201cYou know, in politics, like I mentioned, like even in your journalism too, right? You\u2019ll figure out who doesn\u2019t like you, right? And they will do anything and everything \u2026 but if there are very smart politicians \u2026 where they have other people do stuff for them so they leave no fingerprints but you know it comes back to them \u2026 in journalism, you deal with it too, right? When you know there\u2019s people who don\u2019t like you, they\u2019re there to out to get you.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n No, I don\u2019t deal with that at all and no one is out to get me apart from the editor of this publication who is constantly cutting out my hilarious jokes. It seems that Phan West might think that it\u2019s normal to be making enemies wherever you go \u2013 I suppose that may happen to you if you\u2019re a generally unpleasant person. This wasn\u2019t the only time she tried to suggest that I was probably dealing with similar persecutions as her.\u00a0<\/p>\n Phan West\u2019s support for President Trump<\/p>\n Phan West is a strong supporter of President Trump as evidenced by her social media posts, so I asked for her evaluation of his second term so far.<\/p>\n After several compliments, including how Trump has stopped us from getting mocked by other countries and raving about how much freedom he has brought to places like Venezuela and soon to Iran, she opined that, \u201cFor example, with Vietnam, we, of course, are still a communist country, but we, to be honest with you, they\u2019re smart communists. They\u2019re kissing Trump\u2019s butt right now. So that\u2019s why they\u2019re not getting attacked, right?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There are a couple of issues to unpack with this statement. First, she\u2019s suggesting that her favored candidate can be swayed away from doing what is right in both her and his mind by having his butt kissed \u2013 it stands to reason that Nicolas Maduro was only a butt-kiss away from staying in power. Second, her statement implies that if Vietnam hadn\u2019t kissed Trump\u2019s butt, we would be attacking them right now, which she should be horrified by but apparently not.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Epstein Files<\/p>\n To cap off this tragic interview, Phan West revealed that she\u2019s disappointed with Trump\u2019s handling of the Epstein files because she believes that Epstein trafficked children to powerful people and politicians to blackmail them into influencing legislation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was bummed and frustrated with President Trump about the Epstein file \u2026 And really really powerful people are on it. But the reason why \u2026 they\u2019re not going to release completely because they need a hold and leverage over those powerful people \u2026 Because you know people in D.C., you know, we\u2019re all human beings. But when you don\u2019t have a moral compass, they blackmail you into going to different parties, doing different things. Then they have that leverage over you. And then now you have to make legislation according to what they want. Or else they\u2019ll expose this, right?\u201d<\/p>\n Currently available evidence does not support this conspiratorial belief.\u00a0<\/p>\n The saga comes to an end<\/p>\n Indeed, Phan West holds many conflicting positions. She\u2019s way too paranoid about communism and socialism but not enough to denounce the Trump administration buying stakes in private companies<\/a>. She brings up the Constitution and the First Amendment every chance she gets but offers no condemnation that I can find on the Trump administration\u2019s many attacks on the media<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n I can go on forever but perhaps most hypocritically of all, she wants us to be tougher on crime but she herself avoided jail time and a misdemeanor conviction by utilizing one of those soft-on-crime diversion programs. Attempted bribery and abuse of power by an elected official is a serious violation of public trust but she received only 20 hours of community service and a 2-hour ethics class.\u00a0<\/p>\n What a candidate! How many voters of the 45th congressional district will cast a vote to promote her to Congress? We\u2019ll find out soon enough.<\/p>\n Rafael Perez is a columnist for the Southern California News Group. You can reach him at rafaelperezocregister@gmail.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I recently interviewed Amy Phan West, a councilwoman in Westminster, who is looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Derek…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,975,2082],"class_list":["post-311949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-opinion","tag-opinion-columnists"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}