Like a schoolgirl with an unrequited crush, California Gov. Gavin Newsom just can’t stop talking about Donald Trump. As we covered Friday, Newsom visited San Ysidro’s border crossing – the busiest in the nation, and one which employs two layers of border barriers (walls) – in an attempt to show that there is no “emergency” at the border.

He obviously didn’t learn anything from CNN reporter Jim Acosta’s similar border visit.

In an appearance on Anderson Cooper 360 on Monday, Cooper brought up Newsom’s border visit and asked him if, considering what he saw in San Ysidro, do walls work? In a very stilted voice, Newsom admitted they do, with a couple of yes-but’s:

“I think they do work, in urban settings. I do think they do work on the southern border here in California, particularly between Tijuana and San Diego, but here’s one of the reasons why they work, is the cross-border engagement, 100,000 people going back and forth legally every single day…for jobs and opportunity.

“It’s one region. You talk to folks down there, they talk about it in a regional construct. We have a sentry program that fast-tracks people to move across the border. It’s a completely different narrative than the one that’s dominating the national news, and it’s a narrative that people have lived with for decades.

“There’s a vibrancy that’s part of that narrative, not just a security issue that’s part of that narrative.”

It would be wonderful if an interviewer showed Newsom photos of how San Ysidro was before the wall and read from interviews given by people who lived and worked there at the time. As How did that vibrancy come about?

BREAKING: US Border Patrol says that after physical barriers were erected in San Diego and El Paso sectors, as well as Yuma and Tucson, they saw reductions in illegal border crossings of 95-99%, but that those barriers need to be expanded and extended to really secure the border

— Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) March 9, 2019

Oh, yeah.

Given all that Newsom said about the varying types of programs that are in place in San Ysidro enabling cross-border commerce, why does he oppose having such crossings all along the border? Does he really think that “eeevil capitalist” Republicans would be against more cross-border commerce?

(Hint: Because that would be a step toward solving the problem, and that doesn’t help Newsom with the people he’s pandering to.)

Newsom has been vocal about his desire to spend California taxpayer money to feed and clothe asylum seekers in the state. President Trump, responding to Newsom’s plea for attention disguised as a border visit, tweeted Saturday:

I hope the grandstanding Governor of California is able to spend his very highly taxed citizens money on asylum holds more efficiently than money has been spent on the so-called Fast Train, which is $Billions over budget & in total disarray. Time to reduce taxes in California!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2019

Cooper reasonably asked whether California should be spending this money, or if the federal government should be spending the money. Newsom responded:

The bottom line is, it is the federal government’s responsibility, it is the federal government’s role…these are parents, these are children, that are…otherwise dumped…thrown at bus stops to fend for themselves. They came through here legally, legal asylum seekers.

“They have ankle bracelets on their legs, they have children in their arms, and they’re out at 2 or 3 in the morning at the Greyhound bus station, and the federal government turns its back on them, turns a blind eye to them. California will not. And if they won’t do their job, we’ll do their job.

And to the extent the taxpayers of California, 40 million strong…embrace that, I enthusiastically will advance that. And $25 million seems a small price to make sure that those children are fed and to make sure that those folks have a safe journey to whatever destination legally they are going towards.

Though Newsom goes to great lengths to emphasize “legal” asylum seekers, does anyone really believe that he’s going to differentiate between those who are here illegally and legal asylum seekers when handing out goodies? Uh, yeah, sure you are, Gavin. That would actually violate SB 54 if you did, FWIW.

In addition, it’s pretty obvious that Newsom doesn’t feel the same compassion for parents and children, mostly middle-class, who are struggling to fend for themselves while paying the new gas taxes, water taxes, and increasing fines and fees that Newsom and his Democrat friends saddle them with.

Unironically, Newsom characterizes Trump’s actions as “pure political theater…political grandstanding.”

Pot, meet kettle.