Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) shot back at Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s accusations of “inciting violence” in Los Angeles as anti-deportation protesters violently riot against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, saying, “California deserves a lot better” than its far-left leader.
Cotton took to X on Monday afternoon to denounce the ongoing riots, which the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) chief said are “getting increasingly worse and more violent”:
“What’s happening in Los Angeles is a threat from the left. They demand open borders, or they will riot. And Dem politicians like Newsom will back them,” the Republican senator wrote. “It won’t work. We must never tolerate this lawlessness.”
Instead of tending to his burning city, Newsom replied, “The only one supporting lawlessness is you and every one of Trump’s minions who are allowing him to illegally militarize our city and incite violence.”
In his own reply, Cotton posted a photo of a Mexican-flag-waving protester standing shirtless on top of a burned and vandalized car on a Los Angeles street:
“What kind of governor blames police officers and the National Guard for ‘inciting’ this violence? Your policies created this mess,” he argued. “And California deserves a lot better.”
Speaking exclusively with Breitbart News on Monday, the senator said, “Gavin Newsom and Democratic politicians created this crisis with open border policies. President Trump is right to take these violent riots seriously and—if necessary—to send in the troops to back up law enforcement. We can have no quarter for violent rioters, especially those waving foreign flags.”
In 2020, Cotton was the first prominent lawmaker to call for sending troops to quell the violent and damaging Black Lives Matter riots in a now-famous New York Times op-ed.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Saturday that President Donald Trump had signed a presidential memorandum that deployed 2,000 National Guardsmen “to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester”:
“In recent days, violent mobs have attacked ICE officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles, California,” Leavitt wrote. “These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States.”
Newsom has continued to shove off any responsibility for the chaos, as he announced a lawsuit against the Trump administration for “illegally” deploying the National Guard in his state, Breitbart News reported.
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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