About a week ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom was giving himself a pat on the back.He messaged the state’s COVID numbers to compare himself favorably against a governor truly popular with the American people: Florida’s Ron DeSantis.Newsom was asked to respond to a recent analysis by DeSantis about state governments implementing “politically motivated school closures, [and] workers denied employment due to heavy-handed mandates” (in other words, California).
“They’re performance artists, some of these people,” [Gov. Gavin Newsom] snapped. “All you have to do is watch Fox and then just decide to plug in. I mean, it’s about the easiest thing I’ve seen in politics. It’s just, ‘What’s the ticker on Fox primetime?’”“With respect, we’d have 40,000 more Californians dead if we took [DeSantis’s] approach,” Newsom continued.
However, this week Newsom is getting a much needed lesson in humility.
In the wake of Union Pacific Railroad’s threat to pull out of Los Angeles due to continuing train robberies, the California governor alighted from his perch for a photo op during clean-up efforts around Union Station.
Newsom stunned those who attended with his uncharacteristically accurate assessment of the situation, likening the area to a “third world country“.
Attending a clean-up at the ravaged rail depot, the Democrat lawmaker exclaimed: ‘It looked like a third world country, these images, the drone images that were on the nightly news.’I took off the suit and tie and said I’m coming because I couldn’t take it,’ he added. ‘I can’t turn on the news anymore. What the hell is going on?’Newsom’s uncharacteristic plain-speaking comes amid growing outrage at crime across Californian cities, with the plundered freight trains making headlines across the US.
The social media commentary that ensued ripped into Newsom for being as surprised as he was about the state of the state.
Newsom was immediately slammed by conservatives on social media who pointed partial blame at Democrat policies that he supports for the lawlessness and vagrancy that has plagued the Golden State.
“Yeah, boy, how did that happen?’ he looked around asking,” the Spectator’s Stephen L. Miller sarcastically tweeted. “‘Man this place that I run is a real s***hole. Ah well, next.’””The definition of a gaffe is when a politician accidentally tells the truth,” Republican California State Rep. Kevin Kiley tweeted.”Even Gavin Newsom now thinks California looks like a third world country,” Republican congressional candidate Errol Webber tweeted. “He’s the one who made it this way!”
Meanwhile, Newsom says that more funding for the state’s Organized Retail Theft Task Force will help put an end to the train thefts. Interestingly, in his response analysis, California’s governor puts part of the blame on the greed of those damned consumers who are trying to find the best bargains online.
The state is adding CHP patrols along the railroad to supplement Union Pacific’s own police force and security measures.The governor also called Thursday for prosecuting thieves who target trains under organized crime laws, which can carry harsher penalties. It wasn’t immediately clear how common that practice would become.“We make charging decisions based on the evidence,” Alex Bastian, an adviser to L.A. County District Attorney George Gascón, told the Associated Press. “Our office takes Union Pacific’s concerns seriously and hopes to discuss this issue more in the coming weeks.”The governor also asked consumers to do their part by using reputable resellers and being skeptical of items listed online for prices that are too good to be true. “A lot of this stuff ends up on platforms you shop on,” Newsom said, referring to stolen goods.
Do you recall the last time you heard DeSantis liken the Sunshine State to a third world country? Me neither.
Florida, for the win . . . despite the alligators, hurricanes and humidity.
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