Conservative CNN pundit Scott Jennings accused California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) of using the civil unrest that has broken out in portions of Los Angeles to score political points and build momentum for a presidential run.
“It‘s amazing to me. First of all, this guy is the governor of a state and it is — got one of its most important cities burning on his watch, and he‘s out here launching a presidential campaign,” Jennings said Tuesday on CNN’s air.
Newsom, Jennings argued, “governs a failed state.”
“And he sits, I guess, at the leadership right now of a political party that‘s wanting to coddle the illegal invasion of our country that‘s causing what‘s happening,” the conservative cable news commentator added.
Newsom, in a fiery speech late Tuesday, condemned President Trump for deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles and accused the president of a “brazen abuse of power.”
This week’s protests in LA have been sparked by mass immigration raids, which Democrats and immigration activists have said are sweeping up innocent people.
Jennings, an ally of Trump who regularly praises his policies and spars with other CNN commentators, during Tuesday’s segment said it was “not particularly controversial for Donald Trump to enforce federal law, our immigration laws.”
“And yet to Democrats and to Gavin Newsom, it‘s an affront to them for the president of the United States to enforce federal law,” he said.
Trump was the first president in more than 50 years to deploy the National Guard to a state without the governor’s consent. It is even more rare for presidents to deploy active-duty forces domestically; hundreds of Marines have been mobilized to deploy to Los Angeles.
A judge on Tuesday rejected Newsom’s emergency request to limit Trump’s Los Angeles troop deployment.
Newsom blasted Trump in a televised address on Tuesday night, warning his overreach would not remain isolated to California.
“This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived,” Newsom said.
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