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LA Mayor Garcetti: President Trump 'Has Done Plenty Of Racist Things'

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA/AP) — Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is considering a 2020 presidential run, says President Donald Trump has done "plenty of racist things" to divide the nation while failing to deliver on health care reform and other promises.

The two-term Democratic mayor says his party needs to show the president is thin-skinned and ineffective.

In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, Garcetti says Trump has not delivered on a promise to create a better health care plan than President Obama's model.

On race, Garcetti stopped short of calling Trump a racist but says "he certainly has done plenty of racist things."

The mayor says that "racism is something that lives in everybody" but Trump "seems to be much more comfortable with his racism, letting it out."

May Day Protest in Los Angeles
Los Angeles Mayor, Eric Garcetti, speaks during a May Day protest in Los Angeles, California on May 1, 2017. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Nearly 770,000 Los Angeles County voters cast their ballot for Trump in the 2016 election, compared with nearly 2.5 million for Hillary Clinton.

While the mayor frequently referred to then-candidate Trump as the "ultimate caricature of a politician" and branded him a "racist", a "bigot", and "sexist", Garcetti appeared to tone down his criticism following Trump's election.

Prior to the Nov. 2016 vote, Garcetti warned that a Trump victory could all but sink L.A.'s hopes of landing the Olympic Games.

He later credited Trump as being "personally involved" with helping the city land landing the 2028 Olympics, calling the White House one of L.A.'s "true partners" in the effort.

But as he nears a decision on his candidacy - which he told The Associated Press would likely come in the first three months of 2019 - the mayor could be positioning himself to take on Trump more directly.

(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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