California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a nationally televised address on Tuesday night, directly rebuking President Donald Trump for abusing the power of his office and assaulting democracy by sending in members of the National Guard and Marine Corps to Los Angeles to aid anti-immigrant raids by federal agents.
“Democracy is under assault right before our eyes—the moment we’ve feared has arrived,” Newsom said.
His speech reflected the views of millions of Americans, and right-wing media outlets absolutely lost their minds over it.
Leading the charge was Fox News, the most influential conservative media outlet. Newsom’s speech occurred during Sean Hannity’s prime-time show, “Hannity.” Apparently miffed about the interruption, Hannity chose to counterprogram Newsom’s speech in real time.
As the governor spoke, Fox News scrolled a list purporting to show the “criminal history of illegals in the state of California.” Fox News, like Trump, has for years promoted the false narrative that migrants are a major source of crime.
Other right-wing media outlets also tried to counteract Newsom’s speech with mockery.
Breitbart News, which built its notoriety in conservative media with a dedicated “Black Crime” section years ago, said that Newsom “failed to launch” and mocked technical difficulties with the audio feed of the speech.
The conspiracy website Gateway Pundit pushed the narrative that Newsom had “fake tears” as he spoke and gave a “dumpster fire address.”
Right-wing news and social media aggregator Twitchy, which was started in the 2010s by conservative activist Michelle Malkin as a way to direct ire at liberals, echoed Gateway Pundit. The site argued that the soundtrack to Newsom’s speech should be the song “Tears of a Clown.”
While not as openly derisive as conservative media, The New York Times published a piece the morning after the speech that would have been right at home in the right-wing pile-on. The article was headlined “Democrats Enter Risky Political Terrain as Protests Grip California,” which would give readers the false impression that the Democratic Party—and not Trump—instigated the unfolding crisis. It is yet another instance of the Times carrying water for the right, a crusade which has sometimes manifested as open propaganda.
In the real world, early opinion polling has shown that a plurality of Americans do not like Trump’s assault on the Golden State. Rounding up people at schools and Home Depots while threatening a military occupation of one of the world’s best-known cities is not popular. That’s apparently news to right-wing media.
And to The New York Times.