Additional Coverage:
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has again criticized California Governor Gavin Newsom after a fatal crash in Florida involving a commercial truck driver who was in the country illegally. This follows Noem’s earlier criticism of Newsom on Fox News.
Three people died on August 12th on the Florida Turnpike when Harjinder Singh made an illegal U-turn. Singh, who faces three counts of vehicular homicide, is an Indian national who entered the U.S. illegally in 2018, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. He obtained a commercial driver’s license in California a year later.
The incident has fueled attacks by the Trump administration against Newsom, blaming him for the tragedy. In an online post, Noem stated, “Three innocent people were killed in Florida because Gavin Newsom’s California DMV issued an illegal alien a Commercial Driver’s License.
This gut-wrenching tragedy should have never happened.” She added that the Department of Homeland Security would work with the Department of Transportation to prevent similar incidents.
Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin echoed these sentiments, questioning how many more deaths would occur before Newsom “stops playing games with the safety of the American public.”
Newsom’s office fired back, pointing out that Singh entered the U.S. and received his commercial license during the Trump administration. They emphasized that the federal government, under Trump, confirmed Singh met immigration requirements and issued him a work permit.
They accused the Trump administration of either lying or being clueless. They even posted a screenshot of a query to an AI chatbot asking who the president was in 2018, to which it correctly responded, “Donald Trump.”