‘Absurd, Frankly’: MSNBC Anchor Attacks JD Vance Remarks on Gavin Newsom as ‘Ludicrous’
MSNBC anchor Alex Witt called remarks by Vice President JD Vance “absurd” as she and her guest Rep. Robert Garcia of California joined forces to attack Vance and defend Garcia’s fellow Democrats on Saturday.
On the latest Alex Witt Reports from MSNBC, the host spoke with the California congressman about the vice president’s visit to the state this week, during which Vance slammed Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom over the ongoing and sometimes violent protests against ICE in L.A.
“Every single law enforcement officer I talked to today, every single one of them, said they feel like the local leadership — the mayor and the governor — are encouraging these far-left agitators,” said Vance on Friday. “What is the justification for this?”
“They have treated border patrol and border enforcement as somehow an illegitimate force instead of what they are, which is the American people’s law enforcement trying to enforce the American people’s laws,” Vance said. “So when Gavin Newsom encourages violence and rioting, when he encourages people to get in the face of our great border patrol officers, he is absolutely endangering the lives of federal enforcement. He is absolutely endangering the lives of of mothers and daughters and fathers and sons who have been sent here to do a simple thing, enforce the law.”
Speaking with Garcia, Witt characterized Vance’s comments as absurd while introducing the topic.
“We’re going to move to Vance, who accused L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, California Governor Gavin Newsom, of encouraging threats to law enforcement officers, which seems pretty absurd, frankly,” she said.
Witt then brought up Vance having mistakenly referred to Sen. Alex Padilla as “Jose Padilla” — a remark being criticized as “racist” and which Vance’s office later played down by saying he must have “mixed up two people who have broken the law.”
Witt said:
[Vance] also took a shot at Senator Alex Padilla, whom he referred to as Jose, accusing him of engaging in political theater. Vance was referring to Padilla being forced to the ground by federal agents after he tried to ask a question of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. It was at her press conference last week.
After the intro, Witt first asked Garcia “What’s your response to Vance’s remarks?” But she quickly interrupted herself to add more commentary, saying “I know I chimed in with mine>”
“I do find it ludicrous to think that anybody in a position of authority and leadership in the state of California would say, oh yeah, let’s bring on the protest, let’s have a lot of crime and mayhem,” she continued before Garcia was able to reply.
Garcia called Vance’s comments “beneath him” and said that he only went to California to fundraise and tell lies:
Yeah, I mean, first, look, the vice president — I mean, how petty and just beneath his office to essentially not name Alex Padilla. And he knows him. They were in the Senate for a couple of years. And to say that and then make fun of it I think is just really beneath, beneath him. And at the same time, he’s out here just causing more issues. First, he was down here for a fundraiser to be to be very clear. And then he comes out here, the vice-president, to essentially provide misinformation to the public, not support any of the efforts on the ground and essentially tell lies.
Watch the clip above via MSNBC.
