“I’m not going to do a legal analysis of you as to whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested, but he has to be tarred and feathered,” Mike Johnson told reporters at the Capitol.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson piled up on Republican attacks targeting California Gov. Gavin Newsom, telling reporters on June 10 that President Donald Trump should be “tar and feathered” to challenge immigration enforcement.
“That’s not my lane. I’m not going to do a legal analysis of whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested, but he should be tarred and feathered,” Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, told the U.S. Capitol at his weekly press conference.
On June 9, Trump said, “That’s great” if his border emperor Tom Homan arrested Newsom. The governor challenged Trump’s decision to call the California State Guard to Los Angeles and quell the protests against immigration enforcement. Trump also ordered the sending of 700 Marines to the second largest city in the country.
At his press conference, Johnson said Newsom was blocking the Trump administration from implementing federal law.
“He’s in the way of administration and federal law operations. He praises the bad guys and gets in the way of good guys. He’s a participant and an accomplice in federal law enforcement, he’s been assaulted,” Johnson said. “This is a serious problem.”
Newsom responded quickly on social media. “It’s good to know that we skip arrests and go straight for punishment in the style of the 1700s.
Johnson on the Newsom Lawsuit: “What a joke.”
Johnson also criticized Newsom for filing a lawsuit against Trump for sending the California State Guard to Los Angeles over his objections.
“What a joke,” Johnson said. “Do your job, man.”
The House Speaker also said the protest could soon become uncontrollable in large cities.
“If local and state officials don’t want to do their job or are not possible, the US president does him and we fully support it,” Johnson said.
The last time the National Guard called for the governor’s objection was in 1965 when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to escort civil rights marchers who took part in the Selma Montgomery march in Alabama.
