As protests over President Donald Trump's immigration raids in Los Angeles are increasing in number and intensity, so are Republican attacks on California. And Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is taking time to personally address some of his most high-profile GOP critics.
Alabama news site AL.com reported Monday that Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) — who used to be the head coach of Auburn University's football team – recently called California a "third-world country," saying that "anarchists are in charge, law enforcement is being attacked and the rule of law is nonexistent." Newsom didn't let the comment slide, and pointed out that Tuberville's state actually has a much higher violent crime rate than the Golden State.
"Alabama has 3X the homicide rate of California. Its murder rate is ranked third in the entire country," Newsom tweeted. "Stick to football, bro."
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The governor isn't wrong: AL.com reported that in 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the homicide rate in California was 5.9 per 100,000 residents, while Alabama's was at 14.9 per 100,000. Newsom also fired back when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defended Trump's decision to circumvent Newsom in deploying the California National Guard — the first time a U.S. president has called in the National Guard in defiance of a governor since 1965.
"President Trump did exactly what he needed to do to restore order and protect our law enforcement officers and our communities," Johnson tweeted.
"Using this logic, the Guard should have been deployed to @SpeakerJohnson’s District years ago — Louisiana has the second highest murder rate in the nation and was ranked 'the most dangerous state in America,'" Newsom responded in a quote tweet mentioning the speaker's official X account. "Are you saying Trump should send the Guard there next??"
Newsom's claim appears to stem from a 2024 report in the Shreveport Times (which is the largest newspaper in Johnson's district) on WalletHub ranking the Bayou State as the most dangerous in the U.S. when considering violent crime rates, vehicular deaths and climate disasters per capita. WalletHub ranked Louisiana 50th out of 50 states in murders per capita and 46th out of 50 in assaults per capita.
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The California governor has also responded to a tweet from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) saying "we fly the American flag in America" by posting photos from the January 6, 2021 insurrection in which people storming the U.S. Capitol were seen using the American flag as a weapon against law enforcement officers.
"Like this?" Newsom wrote.