California Gov. Gavin Newsom added fuel to the fire after daring President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan to arrest him for failing to crack down on violent anti-ICE agitators in his state.
“Come after me. Arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy,” the defiant Democrat told NBC News on Sunday.
Newsom’s taunt came soon after Homan had warned that the governor and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass could both face federal charges for trying to thwart ICE raids throughout the city.
“I’ll say it about anybody,” Homan had said in a weekend interview as fiery scenes erupted throughout Los Angeles.
“You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”
In response to the violence, Trump said he’d deploy 2,000 California National Guard troops to the city as federal immigration agents faced off against scores of anti-ICE protesters for a third day.
Newsom, who insisted the Trump move would only exacerbate the conditions, stoked the flames — as he accused the administration of using federal power as a political weapon.
“He’s a tough guy. Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” Newsom told the outlet.
“But you know what? Let your hands off 4-year-old girls that are trying to get educated. Let your hands off these poor people. They’re just trying to live their lives, man. Trying to live their lives, paying their taxes. Been here for 10 years. The fear, the horror.”
“The hell are they doing? These guys need to grow up. They need to stop, and we need to push back. And I’m sorry to be so clear, but that kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let’s go,” he added.
Homan accused the governor of spewing anti-ICE rhetoric in the wake of the violence.
“We’re arresting bad people. We’re enforcing laws and following up on a serious criminal investigation on cartel financing. So that’s exactly what ICE did. And ICE took a lot of bad people off the street that day,” he told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“We arrested a sexual predator, arrested gang members, arrested somebody that had an armed robbery conviction. So we made LA Safer.”
“The men and women of ICE, the men and women of the border control made LA safer that day, but you’re not hearing any of this. All you hear is a rhetoric about ICE being racist and ICE being Nazis and terrorists — and Gov. Newsom feeds that,” he added.
Newsom, for his part, said he plans to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration first thing Monday to thwart the deployment of troops.
“They had to coordinate with the governor of the state,” Newsom said.
“They never coordinated with the governor of the state.”
“This is about authoritarian tendencies. This is about command and control. This is about power. This is about ego,” he added.
