House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday suggested that California Gov. Gavin Newsom should be “tarred and feathered,” as President Donald Trump threatens to arrest the governor for his response to ICE protests in Los Angeles.
“Do you believe that Newsom should face consequences in a legal way?” a reporter asked Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana.
“Look, that’s not my lane. I’m not gonna give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested,” said Johnson, a lawyer. “But he ought to be tarred and feathered, I’ll say that.”
“He’s standing in the way of the administration and the carrying out of federal law, right? He is applauding the bad guys and standing in the way of the good guys,” the Speaker continued. “He is a participant — an accomplice in our federal law enforcement agents being not just disrespected but assaulted.
“This is a serious problem, and the governor is now filing a lawsuit against the president. What a joke. Do your job, man. That’s what I’d tell Gavin Newsom: Do your job. Stop working on your rebranding and be a governor.”
Johnson’s comments came a day after Trump alleged, without providing concrete evidence, that Newsom purposely obstructed federal immigration enforcement efforts. The president and his supporters have claimed in recent days that Newsom was too slow to deploy local police to control protest crowds on Friday, after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol officials conducted raids to detain undocumented immigrants in LA.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons claimed the LAPD had a severely delayed response to protesters confronting federal agents at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, despite being called multiple times. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell countered that his department responded within 38 minutes, overcoming traffic, crowd density, and federal agents deploying tear gas at the scene. LAPD was not made aware of the federal operation, due to a state law that prohibits state and local law enforcement from assisting in federal immigration enforcement.
