On Tuesday night, California governor Gavin Newsom addressed the nation amid his ongoing fight with President Trump. The president had sent the National Guard to Los Angeles last weekend to protect law enforcement officials after anti-ICE protests descended into violence, and Newsom seized the moment to elevate his national profile as leader of #TheResistance.
In a speech that doubled as a soft launch of what might become Newsom’s presidential campaign, Newsom declared the moment to be “Democracy at a Crossroads,” and employed by turns obfuscation, gaslighting, and outright untruths to try to drive the public narrative. It’s worth dwelling on the specific lies Newsom told, the specific ways he undermined the truth and America’s founding values in the name of “defending democracy.”
“This past weekend, federal agents conducted large-scale workplace raids in and around Los Angeles. Those raids continue as I speak,” Newsom said.
“California is no stranger to immigration enforcement. But instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records and people with final deportation orders—a strategy both parties have long supported—this administration is pushing mass deportations,” claimed Newsom.
This statement is laughably untrue, as anyone who was alive for the past five years knows.