California Governor Gavin Newsom called out the hypocrisy of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after sharing a clip from last year showing she'd once criticized the Biden administration for considering deploying the National Guard when Democrats suggested it as a response to Texas' immigration crackdown at the time.
That's noteworthy because Noem has made an about-face, defending President Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles amid ongoing protests in response to his administration's immigration raids by claiming he'd taken this drastic step "for the safety of this community ... to keep peace."
At the time, Noem told Fox News host Sean Hannity that if then-President Joe Biden decided to deploy the National Guard, it would amount to a “direct attack on states’ rights” and could ignite a “war” between Washington and Republican-led state governments:
"People asked me why when I immediately heard the news why I was the next day at the border and it was because of what I heard the Democrats encouraging the president to do. ... [Biden] was actually going to take control of the South Dakota National Guard and actually activate them so they would not protect America."
"Recognizing the real threat to states' rights and how this would be the first time in history a president would pay a soldier to not fight, to not protect our country, made me show up in Texas to let Governor [Greg] Abbot know, 'I'm here, South Dakota's with you, we will defend our Constitution.'"
"We will defend our rights because the last several years, we’ve seen Democrats take away our freedom of religion, our freedom of assembly, our freedom of speech. We can’t let them take away our states’ rights too, especially our right to protect ourselves.”
You can hear what she said in the video below.
Newsom resurfaced the post, sarcastically noting:
"This aged well."
You can see his post below.
Others echoed his criticism of Noem.
In remarks to Hannity on Fox News' coverage of the Los Angeles protests, Noem said Los Angeles is "a city of criminals."
She said the ICE raids had targeted “over 400 to 500” individuals identified as known gang members who had been “victimizing people for years,” while, according to critics, the city’s mayor, Karen Bass, and Governor Gavin Newsom had done “absolutely nothing” in response.
Noem declared the Trump administration is "coming in and doing what the president has said that he’s going to do and he’s going to allow people to live in a safe community again and we’re going to use the authority that he has as president of the United States to conduct these operations."
Her remarks came after Trump doubled the number of National Guard troops deployed in the city, sending an additional 2,000 on Monday to reinforce those already on the ground. In addition, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth mobilized a contingent of 700 Marines.
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