Between Wednesday’s Morning Joe on MSNBC and NBC’s Today from Thursday, NBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff played footsie with fellow California leftist and Governor Gavin Newsom (D), serving as a welcome mat for Newsom to promote a massive gun grab and hint at arresting 2024 Republican presidential candidate and Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) if he set foot in the Golden State.
Wednesday morning on MSNBC featured the DeSantis portion, which resulted in co-host Joe Scarborough falsely claiming DeSantis put illegal immigrants on the streets when he flew a group of them to Sacramento seeing as how California was so open to illegal immigration.
In the first of two exchanges, Soboroff noted “[t]hese flights of” what he called “asylum seekers” (versus illegal immigrants) “have been described as state-sanctioned kidnapping by the attorney general of this state” and reminded Newsom of his tweet agreeing with his AG and calling DeSantis “a small pathetic man”.
He then gave Newsom the floor to further taunt DeSantis: “I think I’m being generous while empathetic. Very generous. He’s just weakness masquerading as strength. Yeah. He’s flailing. Desperate for attention.”
Without pushback, Newsom continued to dither away, falsely claiming these illegals were lured “under false pretense” because “I don’t think this, I know this, I talked to the migrants” that DeSantis “lied to them, took them into another state by bus, and then took ‘em on a chartered flight to Sacramento, lying to them that they had help on the other side, knocked on the door, and they left these migrants right there on the steps.”
“What kind of human being does that,” Newsom added.
In the second clip, Soboroff asked about arresting DeSantis: “Ron DeSantis is going to be landing in this city later this month to hold a fundraiser for his presidential campaign. Should he be worried that law enforcement officials in this state will arrest him?”
Incredibly, Newsom played dumb, insisting “we’re getting into hyperbole” while also hinting he could actually pull that stunt: “Bottom line is, we’re for accountability.”
The pair continued with Soboroff’s faux pushback, followed by a long, unchallenged, and uninterrupted Newsom response (click “expand”):
SOBOROFF: Well, just respectfully, I mean, I don’t think it’s hyperbole. You’re the one raising the issue of criminality, potentially.
NEWSOM: We have — potentially? Yeah. And we have to do the investigation, and that — so, one — when it’s ready, aim, fire. Not ready, fire, aim. And that’s his approach. Our approach is to seek first — to collect all the facts. But on the basis of facts that were provided, and, by the way, I didn’t take this in the third party — right — I was there with these folks directly and listened to how they — I mean, you know, human beings used as pawns for a guy’s political advancement. That’s pretty sad and pathetic. And — and so, I — I take this very seriously and as I said, we are not Martha’s Vineyard. I love Martha’s Vineyard, but we’re not Martha’s — this is California. Fourth or fifth largest economy on the planet Earth. We mean business, so Ron DeSantis should know that. And everyone that has been part of this, they may have more direct accountability and culpability, should know that we mean business and we’re not backing away from getting the facts and holding those accountable if they broke the laws in the state of California.
Fast-forward just over 24 hours to Today and co-host Hoda Kotb introduced the gun portion by boasting “a historic announcement by California Governor Gavin Newsom that could affect the country when it comes to gun control.”
Soboroff’s lead-in was pure liberal P.R.:
Every week in this country, there is another mass shooting, but in the aftermath, little seems to be done to stop more of them. Now, California Governor Gavin Newsom is taking an unprecedented step which he says will do just that. He’s proposing a new 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that, if passed, would restrict access to guns in all 50 states.
His first question in this section was bland: “Why a constitutional amendment and why now?”
Newsom dismissed the legitimacy of federal courts, insisting “why now is pretty self-evident that a lot of laws...being rolled back by the federal courts.”
Soboroff instead gave him an assist: “To be clear, you’re not calling for the abolition of the Second Amendment.”
As for the details, Soboroff bragged Newsom was “fed up with Congress’s inability to act” and thus “proposing something never done before on gun control” with a constitutional amendment to “implement four measures,” including a “ban” on “the sale of assault rifles to civilians.”
Soboroff accepted a lame answer for how it’ll happen: “It’s possible because their constituency demands it.” The NBC reporter backed it up with a Fox News poll.
Soboroff only pushed back near the end, but cushioned the blow (click “expand”):
SOBOROFF [TO NEWSOM]: You know very well what the critics will say about this. California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation. In the first month of the year, between Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park, 18 people were killed. That’s what they’re going to say. What do we need this 28th Amendment for?
NEWSOM: Well, California’s gun death rate today is 73 percent lower than Texas. These federal judges want to turn America into Texas. We cannot let that happen.
SOBOROFF: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution that gave women the right to vote, it took 40 years or so. Do you think that 28th Amendment, if it’s passed, will it happen in your lifetime?
NEWSOM: I hope so. If you don’t start, it will never happen.
Back live, Soboroff conceded that “to even get this amendment off the ground, California would need to be joined by two-thirds of the other states” and is thus “a very uphill battle.”
This apple polishing was made possible thanks to advertisers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods (on Today) and Liberty Mutual (on Morning Joe). Follow the links to see their contact information at the MRC’s Conservatives Fight Back page.
To see the relevant transcripts from June 7 and 8, click here (for Morning Joe) and here (for Today).
