California Gov. Gavin Newsom says Ron DeSantis is a “little, pathetic man” and the Florida governor is also guilty of kidnapping. The Democrat’s reason for lashing out at his (Republican) colleague from Florida was the transportation of 36 immigrants who were flown by chartered plane from the US’s southern border to Sacramento last week. Organized by the Florida government, the state agreed Tuesday.

Florida denied it was a kidnapping. Immigrants, mostly from Venezuela and Colombia, have voluntarily chosen to travel to California. The California State Attorney’s Office said many of the immigrants signed documents but had no idea of ​​their whereabouts upon arrival. Only that they were offered employment.

The focus is economics

Three dozen asylum seekers are nothing compared to the tens of thousands of migrants who cross the US southern border each year. That doesn’t lessen the pressure on Florida asylum seekers one iota. The attention economy surrounding the US election circus is worth the political buzz in gold, especially now that more Republicans are announcing their candidacies for the presidency. Donald Trump’s main rival in the Republican Party is Ron DeSantis. Like Trump, DeSantis also pursues a tougher immigration policy — last week he promised to dismantle the border wall with Mexico, which Trump has not completed.

DeSantis has also pulled this trick before. Last September, he sent two flights of immigrants from New York and Boston to Martha’s Vineyard, an island off the coast of Massachusetts where wealthy Democrats make their summer homes. A group that often accused DeSantis of hypocrisy, which he wanted to illustrate with his stunt. That unsuspecting asylum seekers were used to score political points was as irrelevant for a while as it is now.

Meanwhile, everyone knows that Gavin Newsom feels very differently about it. A perfect grindstone for the hard-right profile of progressive Governor DeSantis of deeply Democratic California, and vice versa. A few weeks ago, when Disney canceled a mega-investment that cost Florida two thousand jobs because of a long-running political dispute with DeSantis, Newsom couldn’t stop. Those workers were welcomed in California, “a state that shares your values,” Newsom said.

DeSantis’ myriad political stunts could have a criminal or civil tail this time: Rob Bonda, California’s attorney general, is considering whether to launch a lawsuit against Florida after the governor’s appeal.

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