California Gov. Gavin Newsom called his Florida counterpart, Gov. Ron DeSantis, a “small, pathetic man” after migrants from Florida were unceremoniously ferried to and dumped in California.
In a tweet on Monday, Newsom wrote: “@RonDeSantis you small, pathetic man. This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard.”
Newsom floated the idea of pressing “kidnapping charges” against DeSantis by invoking a section of the criminal code that penalizes people who forcibly bring people into “the limits of the state.”
—Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 5, 2023
Newsom’s tweet comes after it was reported that 16 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia were dropped off in front of a Catholic church in Sacramento, California, on Friday.
A New York Times report stated that the migrants carried paperwork from Florida and that the Florida-based contractor, Vertol Systems Company, organized their travel.
Newsom said in a statement on Saturday that he had met with at least a dozen migrants who were dropped off in California.
“These individuals were transported from Texas to New Mexico before being flown by private chartered jet to Sacramento and dumped on the doorstep of a local church without any advance warning,” he said in the statement.
And on Monday, California law enforcement intercepted a second plane carrying about 20 migrants from Florida to Sacramento.
DeSantis, who recently announced his 2024 presidential run, has kept mum about his involvement in the matter.
However, his office acknowledged to Fox News last September that it had sent 49 migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. The move to send illegal immigrants to Democrat-run states was widely seen as an anti-liberal political stunt and a protest against President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
This is not the first time that the California governor has criticized DeSantis. On April 1, he made a sarcastic remark about DeSantis’ ongoing feud with Disney.
Speaking to Insider’s Kimberly Leonard, he said: “There’s a new sheriff in town. It’s Mickey Mouse, back on top.”
He also said during an MSNBC interview with former White House press secretary Jen Psaki on April 9 that DeSantis will get “thumped” if he chooses to run against former President Donald Trump.
Representatives of DeSantis and Newsom did not immediately respond to Insider’s requests for comment sent outside regular business hours.
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