[H]olding anyone civilly or criminally accountable for the flights may prove challenging, legal analysts said, and would most likely turn on whether the migrants were misled when they boarded the planes.

“I suspect that prosecuting this is going to be a stretch,” said Jon Taylor, a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio who is familiar with local criminal laws. “It may be difficult to get a conviction.”

Because reveling in Newsom’s gift for red-faced, foot-stamping public top-blowing never gets old, here’s that exquisite wrong-on-every-level tweet again:

.@RonDeSantis you small, pathetic man.

This isn't Martha's Vineyard.

Kidnapping charges?

Read the following. https://t.co/kvuxe8Fb6F pic.twitter.com/KyE1lJiIYo

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 5, 2023

Here’s an idea: If you’re going to label someone a “small, pathetic man,” you probably shouldn’t use the same N95-unencumbered lips that were dabbed by fine linen from French Laundry while directing your constituents to stay home. Dining posh while you scorn gatherings of more than three households is “small [and] pathetic” personified.

Meanwhile, DeSantis — if, indeed, it was DeSantis who gave the nod — simply provided luxury chartered air service and exclusive ground transportation to foreign newcomers eager to relocate to California, by statute, an official welcome station to those who steal across our borders illegally. 

And this makes DeSantis the bad guy?

Brush up your Baroness Orczy, whose first hero earned acclaim by spiriting people from a place of misery to one where they were, by decree, officially welcomed. If Ron DeSantis is anything in this scenario, it’s the Scarlett Pimpernel.

To be sure, illegal immigrants who volunteered for relocation were only too happy to go. As lawyers representing Perla Huerta, an ex-Army counterintelligence officer instrumental in finding volunteers for the Martha’s Vineyard flights last year, have noted:

In legal filings, they have said the migrants only complained about their trips because they disagree with Mr. DeSantis’s politics. They were receptive to the free trips, the filings said, because they were hungry, exhausted and had few other options for help by the time they were approached.

Those flown from El Paso, Texas, to Sacramento reported similar dire straits. In a video released by the Florida Division of Emergency Management:

Individuals are shown signing paperwork. A woman asks some of the individuals in Spanish if they were “treated poorly” and they say no, according to the video’s translation. A man speaking in English says: “Thank you for my room, my life in the streets is very, very heavy.”

In a statement, FDEM communications director Alecia Collins covered all the bases. Providing consent that was both verbal and written, the travelers described themselves as willing volunteers. And they were delivered not only to an official sanctuary city in a sanctuary state, they were presented to a chapter of Catholic Charities, “used and funded by the federal government” — whose prolonged inaction, exacerbated by the Biden administration’s aggressive indifference, is the root cause of the ongoing flood of migrants.

“From left-leaning mayors in El Paso, Texas, and Denver, Colorado, the relocation of those illegally crossing the United States border is not new,” Johnson said. “But suddenly, when Florida sends illegal aliens to a sanctuary city, it’s false imprisonment and kidnapping.”

Remember, it was Gavin Newsom who righteously provided this insight into California’s unbending generosity while Donald Trump was president:

Let me be clear, @realDonaldTrump: California is a sanctuary state. We believe in the power of diversity. We have defied and resisted the xenophobic, hateful policies of your administration at every turn. We will do it again.https://t.co/HjaXaABzzC

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 19, 2018

So, all are welcome. Until someone whose politics conflict with yours tests your commitment to the spirit of sanctuary. Rather than visit these new haven-seeking residents, Newsom hit television to double down on hypocrisy. 

“We’re not backing away from getting the facts and holding those accountable if they broke the laws in the state of California,” Newsom said during an interview with NBC’s Today show. 

Newsom suggested on Wednesday that following an investigation, DeSantis might not be able to step foot in California without being arrested.

About the same time, DeSantis, as part of his national tour now that he’s an official candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, was visiting the southern border in Arizona, establishing the visuals for his campaign vow to get immigration sorted, once and for all.

For voters who will decide the GOP nominee next year, it’s not difficult to decide who looks better here.