House Speaker Mike Johnson responded Tuesday to a question of whether he thinks California Gov. Gavin Newsom should face legal consequences for his actions as Los Angeles is consumed by anti-deportation riots.
“That’s not my lane, I’m not going to give you legal analysis on whether Gavin Newsom should be arrested, but he ought to be tarred and feathered, I’ll say that,” Johnson, R-La., said in response to The Daily Signal’s question.
Newsom, a Democrat, responded to the suggestion on X and his spokeswoman also provided a comment.
“Real leadership is working collaboratively to ensure the safety of our communities,” Diana Crofts-Pelayo told The Daily Signal. “Governor Newsom has been doing that since day one. Trump is further inciting violence through his authoritarian commands.”
The question came as LA anti-ICE riots continued into Monday night and President Donald Trump doubled the National Guard presence.
Newsom had criticized Trump for sending in the National Guard. White House border czar Tom Homan implied that Newsom may have committed a felony by protecting illegal aliens. Newsom responded with a taunting video, saying, “Arrest me. Let’s go.”
Asked Monday if he thought Newsom should be arrested, President Donald Trump chuckled and said, “I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.”
After saying he would not provide a legal analysis, Johnson proceeded to accuse Newsom of being an “accomplice” in attacks on law enforcement.
“I mean, look, he’s standing in the way of the administration and the carrying-out of federal law,” the speaker said. “He is applauding the bad guys, and standing in the way of the good guys.”
“He is a participant, an accomplice in our federal law enforcement agents being not just disrespected, but assaulted,” Johnson added. “This is a serious problem and the governor is now filing a lawsuit against the president—what a joke. Do your job, man. ”
Johnson concluded, “I don’t know what the ultimate measure will be there, but I know that in the interim time, the president of the United States is showing real leadership and we’re not going to allow LA to burn… If local and state officials are unwilling or unable to do their job, the president of the United States will do his.”
Newsom later responded to a clip of Johnson’s exchange with The Daily Signal, writing on X, “Good to know we’re skipping the arrest and going straight for the 1700’s style forms of punishment. A fitting threat given the @GOP want to bring our country back to the 18th Century.”
“Tarring and feathering” refers to a form of public torture that goes back to the medieval era, in which authorities or a mob stripped a criminal naked, covered him or her with hot tar, and then added feathers as a form of humiliation.
Mobs often engaged in this painful punishment during America’s colonial era. Bostonians tarred and feathered British loyalist John Malcolm in 1774, a notable foreshadowing of the American Revolution.
The practice made a rare recurrence in 1918, when a crowd in Ashland, Wisconsin, tarred and feathered a German-American man as anti-German sentiments ran high during World War I.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
