Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to attacks this week from Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom about crime in the state of Arkansas by pointing to the number of people fleeing the state of California.

Newsom tweeted on Tuesday night following Sanders’ rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address about crime in the southern state.

“While @SarahHuckabee touts public safety, here is what she skips over: Arkansas has the one of the highest murder rates in the nation,” Newsom said.

While @SarahHuckabee touts public safety, here is what she skips over:

Arkansas has the one of the highest murder rates in the nation.

— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) February 8, 2023

Sanders responded to the criticism during an interview Thursday night with Fox News host Sean Hannity, who pointed out that Newsom seemingly ignored the fact that Sanders had been in office “a whopping 31 days.”

“By comparison, when you look at Gavin Newsom’s time in public office, his time as San Francisco mayor, lieutenant governor, now governor, Newsom has spent nearly 7,000 days driving California straight into the ground,” Hannity said. “Crime and homelessness are now through the roof. The drug problem in California is out of control. Reports of school children being forced to walk through open-air drug dens. California ranked dead last again in the U-haul index.”

Sanders said the fact that Newsom was attacking her proved that she was doing something right with the initial actions she has taken as the state’s new governor.

“Let’s not forget, he literally had to run ads begging people to stay in California not that long ago. And every single town I go to in Arkansas, I meet someone who has moved from California,” she said. “My message to them is we’re glad you’re here but don’t forget why you left California. We are proud of our state and our gates are open for people to come.”

WATCH:

On Tuesday, during her 15-minute speech following Biden’s State of the Union, Sanders contrasted Republicans’ agenda with the president’s. She leaned into what she called a “Left-wing culture war” and denounced Biden and Democrats for being “highjacked by the radical Left.” The Arkansas governor framed the differences between the two parties as those between normalcy and radicalism.

“In the radical Left’s America, Washington taxes you and lights your hard-earned money on fire. But you get crushed with high gas prices, empty grocery shelves, and our children are taught to hate one another on account of their race, but not to love one another or our great country,” she continued. “The dividing line in America is no longer between Right or Left. The choice is between normal and crazy.”

Sanders went on to tout her own record as governor, despite taking office less than a month ago. The Arkansas governor mentioned her efforts to combat Critical Race Theory in education, ban the term “Latinx” in the state government, and take action against COVID regulations and lockdown measures.

Related: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Declines To Endorse Trump For President

Tim Pearce contributed to this report. 

Daily Wire podcast host Matt Walsh explained during an interview Thursday night his strategy for winning arguments against the political Left, saying that it simply boils down to making them state what their positions are.

Walsh’s appearance on Fox News with host Tucker Carlson comes after he testified before a Tennessee House committee this week where he sparred with Democrat lawmakers over a bill that would ban sex-change treatments on minors.

“So, their really failed and embarrassing attempts to discredit me were not only humiliating for them, but also totally irrelevant, because even if you can prove that I’m a terrible guy, does that automatically make it okay to mutilate children then?” Walsh said. “Because that’s what we’re supposed to be talking about.”

“But they don’t want to talk about that because they know they can’t defend their position,” he said. “This is the position that Democrats and the Left are constantly in on many issues, in particular on this one, where their position is something that is so unspeakably evil that they can’t speak it.”

“So, you can defeat them in an argument simply by trying to get them to state their premise,” he continued. “They can’t even state their premise. I mean, [Tennessee state Rep.] Caleb Hemmer [D] does believe that 16-year-olds can consent to having body parts removed, but he can’t say that out loud because he knows how crazy it sounds. And so instead, he just falls silent.”

WATCH:

.@MattWalshBlog tells @TuckerCarlson about TN Democrats and transgender child mutilation: “They know they can’t defend their position…Their position is something that is so unspeakably evil that they can’t speak it.” pic.twitter.com/qmjPQYT8nl

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) February 10, 2023

TRANSCRIPT:

Carlson: We were shocked — and probably most people were shocked — to learn that Vanderbilt Medical Center, which is a very well respected Hospital in Tennessee is involved in the mutilation of children’s genitals for profit. They brag about it on camera. Now, we know this because of Matt Walsh, who found the evidence. So yesterday at a hearing in Tennessee at the Statehouse, Democrats were outraged — not by the general mutilation going on at Vanderbilt Medical Center, but they were mad at Matt Walsh. One Democrat, a man called John Ray Clemens, asked Walsh for his credentials. Here’s Walsh’s response.

[Begin video]

Clemmons: Can you give us a summary of your educational background or your healthcare education experience?

Walsh: My experience in healthcare?

Clemmons: Your educational background? I’m just curious, you testified as to a lot of your own research. So I’m curious for what purpose you do that, and what background you have that qualifies you to speak to that?

Walsh: Well, my background that qualifies me to speak to this is that I’m a human being with the brain, and common sense, and I have a soul. And so therefore, I think it’s a really bad idea to chemically castrate children. That is my experience. Also, I did — now it’s true, I didn’t, I didn’t go to college, but I did go to school long enough to learn how to read. So I can read the data for myself. And that’s exactly what I’ve done.

Clemmons: For what purpose do you conduct your research and use this brain of yours?

Walsh: I use it for the purpose of trying to protect children from being castrated and mutilated. That’s one of the things I try to do.

[End video]

Carlson: What kind of soulless freak is John Ray Clemens, who could sit there hearing all this stuff and take the side of the castrators of children. It’s just beyond — but Matt Walsh is the villain.

In another hearing, Walsh left another Tennessee lawmaker, this one called Caleb Hemmer, completely speechless.

[Begin video]

Hemmer: Just curious of your definition of if you feel like people are adults at 16, should —

Walsh: People are adults at 18. But actually, your brain is not fully developed until you’re 25. So we should be having a conversation about whether we should even be doing the surgery to people at 18. But certainly before 18, it’s absurd. I mean, do you think that a 16-year-old can meaningfully consent to having their body parts removed? Do you? No?

[End video]

Carlson: Caleb Hemmer, another ghoul defending the indefensible, had no answer. God bless Matt Walsh for doing that. He’s the host of “The Matt Walsh Show,” joins us now. Matt, thank you. It’s so satisfying to watch — boy, you expose these people as truly filthy people.

Walsh: Yeah, I think, well, I mean, they expose themselves, I think, I think most of all, and the interesting thing, too, is that I’m sitting there in the hearing, I was giving my view on this bill — I’m in favor of the bill to ban the mutilation of children. I’m giving my view as a taxpayer and a private citizen, not an author of the bill. So, their really failed and embarrassing attempts to discredit me were not only humiliating for them, but also totally irrelevant, because even if you can prove that I’m a terrible guy, does that automatically make it okay to mutilate children then? Because that’s what we’re supposed to be talking about.

But they don’t want to talk about that, because they know they can’t defend their position. This is the position that Democrats and the Left are constantly in on many issues, in particular on this one, where their position is something that is so unspeakably evil that they can’t speak it. So, you can defeat them in an argument simply by trying to get them to state their premise. They can’t even state their premise. I mean, Caleb Hemmer does believe that 16-year-olds can consent to having body parts removed, but he can’t say that out loud because he knows how crazy it sounds. And so instead, he just falls silent.

Carlson: You look at someone like John Ray Clements — looks like sort of a normal person, maybe he has kids, he’s in favor of cutting the breasts off girls? I mean, how can anybody get to a place where that’s okay?

Walsh: I think, you know, I can’t see inside their their minds. But I have to imagine that most of these people know at some level that it’s wrong, but they’re just ideologically beholden to it. That again is why they don’t even attempt to defend it. And instead, we get this credentialism thing going on, as if I need credentials to know that abusing children is wrong.

Carlson: Well, as a Harvard trained physician, I agree with you. It’s wrong. Matt Walsh, great to see you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Related: Matt Walsh Testifies In Favor Of Tennessee Bill Banning Child ‘Gender Mutilation’