Gavin Newsom, civil rights icon.
That's the look he is going for, anyway. A slick, oily, narcissistic icon, to be sure, but an icon nonetheless.
As I have written many times in the past, everything the Democrats do is performative. It's all about building a narrative, and in this case, Gavin Newsom is deploying his Hollywood good looks and his "I care about the little guy" shtick to portray himself as a martyr for the helpless migrant just trying to get by under the radar.
Trump’s border czar is threatening to arrest me for speaking out.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025
Come and get me, tough guy.
I don't give a damn.
It won’t stop me from standing up for California.pic.twitter.com/DvVQljAgir
Newsom is seizing (or is it "pouncing?") on a "cheap fake" video of Tom Homan being asked about whether Gavin Newsom or anybody else is above the law, to which he said no. He also said that so far, neither of them has broken the laws--Homan laid out the statutes in question, which all have to do with obstructing or assaulting law enforcement--and explicitly distinguished between First Amendment protected speech and committing felonies.
Gavin Newsom: "I told the President, get it over with.. Arrest me."
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 10, 2025
This guy is delusional.
pic.twitter.com/UXi0spqNhX
Newsom twisted that into a threat to arrest Newsom for "speaking out," which is precisely the opposite of what Tom Homan said. A complete inversion, in the same manner that the "very fine people" quote from President Trump was twisted to mean exactly the opposite of what Trump actually said.
Narrative building.
#6 – Tom Homan accuses NBC of deceptive editing, says “I never threatened to arrest Governor Newsom.”
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) June 9, 2025
Gavin Newsom publicly challenged Tom Homan to “come after me, arrest me” in an MSNBC interview last night.
Now, Homan is punching back—and calling out the network for taking… pic.twitter.com/Ui8s1dSE5a
The last thing Tom Homan wants to do is arrest Gavin Newsom for bloviating, because it would indeed turn Newsom into a martyr, it would be illegal, a bad look, and a total distraction from his mission. All Homan wants to do is get on with the deportations.
But if Newsom, or Bass, or any other politician commits a felony, he was clear: they, too, would be arrested, because as we have famously been told ad nauseum by the Democrats (until the riots started up again), "Nobody is above the law."
🚨 #BREAKING: Rioters are now back to SETTING CARS ON FIRE AGAIN in Los Angeles while police watch
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) June 10, 2025
“Gavin Newsom is 100% ADDING FUEL to the flames,” the LA Sheriff’s Ass’n Spokesman says
“He is ABSOLUTELY part of the problem we’re seeing here.” pic.twitter.com/NwvdYD2qdn
It is rioting season again, and the Democrats love riots. Most of them, anyway. For them, it is a tactic. It intimidates their opponents, allowing them to (try to) spin a narrative about the little guy vs. The Man. And it allows them to create a "hecklers' veto" by imposing a price that many aren't willing to pay for pursuing a policy.
It worked during the BLM/George Floyd riots, at least for a while. Activists were able to extract hundreds of millions of dollars out of major corporations and NGOs for their cause, get politicians to bow down to them, and the chaos contributed to Trump's loss in 2020, as Joe Biden ran on a return to normality.
People who were already violating the law are only violating the law because President Trump started enforcing the law.
— JD Vance (@JDVance) June 9, 2025
This is the logic of Newsom and his stooges. https://t.co/LRnmxuCtu6
But as with the Vietnam War protests, a silent majority of Americans pushed back eventually. In 1968 that led to Nixon's victory; in 2024, after Biden made things much worse by pursuing the left-wing agenda of the rioters, Americans reelected Donald Trump.
Confirmed: 🚨 Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is completely clueless!
— Jay 🇺🇸 RECALL Gavin Newsom! (@MasterArborists) June 10, 2025
She claims LA doesn’t need the National Guard and has no idea what they would do, all while her own people are becoming increasingly violent and her city burns! pic.twitter.com/JZEwRyNs1W
Newsom and Bass are trying to latch onto the passion of the Left and get in front of the riot--I mean "parade"--and portray themselves as antagonists of the bullying Trump administration.
"Arrest me" is Newsom's battle call.
But just as Pride parades are no longer in fashion and Target is no longer selling tuck swimwear for tots, riots are not the political winner that Newsom and company believe they are.
Let's return to this in 6 months and 12 months to see if any of these people are arrested for assault and what kind of sentences they get https://t.co/Leli4co0uy
— PoIiMath (@politicalmath) June 9, 2025
Crowds of anarchists trying to kill policemen are not as appealing as the Democrats seem to believe. They have this distorted view based on the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s that protesters are always in the right. What they don't seem to understand is that sympathy for the Civil Rights movement peaked prior to the riots in the latter half of the 1960s, when peaceful protests transformed into race riots that hollowed out American cities and created "white flight."
Nobody who is serious looks back on the George Floyd riots of 2020 and longs for the days of "occupation zones" and the so-called "Summer of Love," and outside leftist circles, nobody is looking for a repeat.
I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations, and immigration—but this is not that.
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) June 10, 2025
This is anarchy and true chaos.
My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings, and assaulting law enforcement. pic.twitter.com/pPYbvP6xR0
I wouldn't be surprised if Gavin Newsom, who will be disappointed by Tom Homan's lack of desire to arrest Newsom for merely speaking, escalates to committing a felony. He can be certain that no jury in a Blue city would convict him of anything (just as Alvin Bragg could be certain that Trump would be convicted in New York City, justice being politicized as it is), so he may just push the limits.
But for now, this is just posturing for the cameras. And while it is the sort of posturing that could net him the Democratic nomination in 2028, it certainly is not going to help him win the White House.
If you are wondering what total Idiocy looks like? The American dream is not the California dream according to Newsome pic.twitter.com/VZhwmBYxFr
— Merv Pilgrim 🕺🎶🍿 (@mervpilgrim) June 9, 2025
The romance of revolution appeals exclusively to the left. Karen Bass--whose hero was Fidel Castro and who helped lead the Venceremos Brigade in the United States--may be able to win (one time) the LA mayor's race, but her ambitions to be a Senator were thwarted.
Newsom is trying to have it both ways--run as a moderate, and run as a revolutionary. He believes this is a winning formula. I am confident that it will fail.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member