Oops. Sometimes, politicians forget two realities: 1) that we live in an age of ubiquitous cameras, and 2) that just because most mainstream media consistently slants their coverage toward the progressive cause, it doesn’t mean that they all do.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom learned this the hard way Thursday after he sent out a preening social media post boasting that he had sent the Golden State’s National Guard down to our porous southern border and that they were currently hard at work guarding our territory.
Only problem: according to Fox News reporters Bill Melugin and Matt Finn, that’s utter malarkey.
We’ll start with Gov. Hair Gel’s photo op of a Twitter/X post:
We are doubling the number of @CalGuard members deployed to crack down on fentanyl smuggling.
This work will help take down transnational organizations & the illegal drugs they attempt to bring into our state—holding smugglers accountable & taking deadly drugs off our streets. pic.twitter.com/A1ocqs0jvU
— California Governor (@CAgovernor) June 13, 2024
In his post, Newsom tried to make it look like he was all in on stopping the tsunami of drugs and illegal aliens crossing the border daily:
…Newsom posted a video to social media from the San Ysidro Port of Entry. In it, he said his team was meeting with the National Guard as well as Customs and Border Patrol agents.
“We have 390 National Guardsmen and women that have been working, particularly as it relates to fentanyl, here in the state of California. Look, at the bottom line at the end of the day, they need more resources,” he said.
Newsom’s no stranger to preening, using his visit to China in November 2023 as one giant photo op:
Newsom Brought Former Presidential Photographer on China Trip, Stuck CA Taxpayers With the Bill
In the Wake of Gavin Newsom’s China Visit, Chinese Media Relentlessly Mock ‘Garbage City’ San Francisco
But Melugin was quick to respond to his latest claim, saying he hadn’t seen anything like what Newsom described in places where it matters:
Haven’t seen one – not a single one – of these CA National Guard soldiers in Jacumba where the mass illegal crossings of adult men from around the world are taking place. BP there so overwhelmed that the migrants wander aimlessly on highways and call Lyfts for themselves while… https://t.co/cpvjGdlSo1
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 13, 2024
Haven’t seen one – not a single one – of these CA National Guard soldiers in Jacumba where the mass illegal crossings of adult men from around the world are taking place. BP there so overwhelmed that the migrants wander aimlessly on highways and call Lyfts for themselves while waiting to be picked up, as San Diego sector now leads the nation in illegal crossings. I sent Gov. Newsom’s below post to a BP agent in Jacumba, who responded by laughing & telling me CA “isn’t doing shit” to help them with illegal crossings there, and any soldiers that they see there are National Guard from other states working w/ DHS under federal Title 10 orders. He said CA soldiers are helping with drug interdiction at ports of entry – not the mass crossing hot spots in Jacumba. If the Governor’s office has any images of CA National Guard helping Border Patrol in Jacumba, I’m happy to update.
On Friday, according to Melugin, the governor responded, but Bill thinks it’s weak sauce since Newsom admitted that the Guard was only helping at legal ports of entry. Right, because that’s where the hotspots are, evidently.
Governor Newsom’s office responds – confirming that the CA National Guard is not assisting Border Patrol in Jacumba where the mass illegal crossings are taking place, and is instead only focusing on ports of entry, where legal crossings take place.
Claims “CA is doing our job” -… https://t.co/CE6lFNXPra— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) June 14, 2024
Claims “CA is doing our job” – as San Diego sector leads the nation in illegal crossings and there is zero effort to deter or enforce at the state level, nor are there any CA National Guard on hand to even help Border Patrol with simple humanitarian tasks that would free up agents to do their jobs.
Great to have this confirmation in writing that the despite the photo ops & claims of doubling CA National Guard at the border – none of them are working with Border Patrol in Jacumba, where @FoxNews live shots continue to show men from around the world pouring in daily, with many ending up street released at a trolley station in San Diego.
Final score: Melugin 1, Newsom 0. Fox News host Tomi Lahren summed up Newsom’s vanity post best: “It’s so textbook Gavin Newsom that it actually hurts.”
Save it @GavinNewsom — you’re the governor of America’s largest sanctuary state. https://t.co/Imv0Pm6dNE
— Rep. Darrell Issa (@repdarrellissa) June 14, 2024
