Mike Johnson looked uncomfortable when asked about Louisiana’s high crime rate.
During a Fox News interview Friday, host Dana Perino brought up California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent comments suggesting that President Trump should send troops to states like Louisiana, which has a higher crime rate than California. Johnson tried to defend his hometown’s progress but seemed to backtrack in his response.
“Gavin Newsom will do anything for attention,” Johnson said. “He can name-drop me all that he wants. He needs to go and govern his state and not be engaging in all of this. Look, we have crime in cities all across America, and we’re against that everywhere, and we need to bring policies to bear. My hometown of Shreveport has done a great job of reducing crime – gradually.”
He added: “But we’ve got to address it everywhere that it rears its ugly head. And I think every major city in the country—the residents of those cities—are open to that and anxious to have it, and we’re the party that’s going to bring that forward. I look forward to that in the days ahead.”
Earlier Friday, Newsom criticized Trump for sending the National Guard to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and for suggesting deployments to New York City, Chicago, and other Democratic-led areas. Newsom argued that if the president really wanted to reduce crime, he should send troops to Johnson’s Louisiana, which has far higher murder rates.
“If he is to invest in crime suppression, I hope the President of the United States would look at the facts,” Newsom said. “Just consider Speaker Johnson’s state and district. Just look at murder rate—that’s nearly four times higher than Californians—in Louisiana.”
