Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan wrapped up a tense Monday morning interview on MSNBC by complaining that a “very dishonest” NBC reporter had taken his threat to arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom “out of context,” insisting that he was “clear” that he didn’t feel the governor had “crossed the line” yet during the fiery Los Angeles protests.
With the demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration raids growing increasingly volatile over the weekend, resulting in the president ordering the National Guard to “liberate Los Angeles from the migrant invasion,” Homan told NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff that California Democrats could face apprehension if they interfered with ICE agents on the ground.
“I’ll say it about anybody,” Homan said when asked if this also meant Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. “You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”
At the same time, he said he wasn’t specifically accusing any politician of impeding law enforcement and that when it came to Bass, he didn’t believe “she’s crossed the line yet.” Still, he called Newsom an “embarrassment for the state” for providing “sanctuary for criminals,” suggesting that the governor “about public safety in the state of California.”
Trump would later double down on Homan’s rhetoric, telling reporters on Sunday that any “officials who stand in the way of law and order” will “face judges.”
In a separate interview with the same NBC reporter, Newsom fired back at Homan while taking issue with the Trump administration in general for further escalating tensions in the region by deploying the military to face off against the protesters.
Calling Homan’s bluff, Newsom told the Trump official to “just get it over with” and arrest him. “He’s a tough guy. Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” he added. “That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let's go.”
Despite Trump blasting him to reporters and online, Newsom said that during a recent phone conversation about the large-scale protests, the president barely even brought the issue up and didn’t express any concerns about Newsom’s ability to handle the demonstrations. “We had a very decent conversation,” the governor added.
Towards the end of his Monday interview on Morning Joe, which largely entailed him defending the administration’s response to the protests and the deportation policies that sparked them, Homan was asked to respond to Newsom’s taunts. Instead of defending his remarks, the border czar blasted Soboroff and fumed that he never threatened to arrest the governor or Bass.
“I’m not biting on that,” he grumbled to anchor Jonathan Lemire. “The NBC reporter that interviewed me is very dishonest. We did a 20-minute interview, and he cuts out a little clip and takes my words out of context.”
Homan went on to state that what he “really said” was that when protesters “crossed the line” then they could find themselves apprehended by law enforcement.
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“They have a right to protest,” he continued. “They have the First Amendment rights, but they can’t cross that line. They can’t cross that line. They can’t cross that line of putting their hands on officers. They can’t cross the line.”Adding that “concealing an illegal alien” is also a federal crime, he asserted that anyone guilty of that statute “will be prosecuted.” At the same time, though, he insisted that he was only saying that it could include Bass and Newsom if they were involved in those activities.
“I was clear they haven’t crossed the line. But they’re not above the law either,” he declared. “If they commit a crime, they certainly will ask for prosecution. That’s what was happening.”
Homan concluded: “I never threatened to arrest Gov. Newsom, so I’m not biting off in that. It’s just that reporter’s dishonest and let them play the whole 20-minute interview, and you’ll see a whole different discussion that we had.”Lemire, for his part, ended the discussion by noting that “NBC News stands by the reporting.”
This wasn’t the first time Homan raged about Soboroff on Monday morning. During an earlier sitdown on Fox News, a network he spent the past few years working for as an on-air contributor, Trump’s hand-picked deportation enforcer attacked the NBC News reporter as a “joke” for his “ridiculous” interview.
“Well, first of all, it’s just ridiculous,” he told Fox & Friends. “That reporter from MSNBC? He’s a joke. He’s a dishonest reporter.”
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