President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan backed down from California Gov. Gavin Newsom's challenge to arrest him
Homan announced Saturday that he was prepared to apprehend "anyone" who interfered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounding up suspected undocumented migrants, but he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday that a reporter who asked Newsom about that threat had taken his comments out of context.
"I'm not biting on that," Homan said. "The NBC reporter who interviewed me is very dishonest. We did a 20-minute interview, and he cut out a little clip. It takes my words out of context. Here's what we said, and he talked about, I talked about these people that are doing these protests and rioting. When they crossed the line, they got, well, here's what I said. They have a right to protest, they have the First Amendment right, but they can't cross that line.
"They can't cross that line of impediment, they can't cross that line of putting their hands on officers, they can't cross the line in knowingly concealing an illegal alien, because they're all federal crimes. They're all there in statute and they will be prosecuted."
Newsom has strongly criticized the president's order to send troops into Los Angeles, where protests against the ICE crackdown have raged for days, and he responded to Homan's threat by daring him to arrest him.
"When he asked the question, does that include mayor [Karen] Bass, Gov. Newsom and I was clear they haven't crossed the line, but they're not above the law either," Homan said.
"If they commit a crime, I certainly will ask for prosecution. That's what was happening. I never threatened to arrest Gov. Newsom, so I'm not biting off of that. That reporter was dishonest. Let them play the whole 20-minute interview, and you'll see a whole different discussion that we had."
Watch the video below or at this link.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
