Republican strategist Scott Jennings tore into Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom of California Tuesday night on CNN, saying Newsom’s speech was an effort to launch a presidential campaign.

Newsom delivered an eight-minute diatribe, claiming President Donald Trump “commandeered” National Guard personnel and “chose escalation” hours after Democratic Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles declared a curfew for parts of the city following five days of rioting when United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carried out an operation at a Los Angeles-area Home Depot. Jennings, who appeared via video link while in Israel, told CNN host Kaitlan Collins, a former Daily Caller White House correspondent, that Newsom appeared willing to “coddle” illegal immigrants.

“It’s amazing to me. First of all, this guy is the governor of a state, and it has got one of its most important cities burning on his watch, and he’s out here launching a presidential campaign,” Jennings told Collins. “There’s no other way to listen to what happened and not conclude that he just launched his presidential campaign on top of this lawlessness that’s going on in California. He governs a failed state. He sits atop of 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.”