GOP Rep. Darrell Issa, center, praised President Donald Trump's response to the anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles and unloaded on California Democrats like Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Getty)
Additionally, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and other Democrats have blamed President Donald Trump's mobilizing the National Guard for making the situation worse.
Issa, who represents California’s 48th Congressional District, took issue with that narrative.
"First of all, there was damage, both vandalism and actual destruction done before Trump got involved, and that's the reason he got involved, but there's another thing that some people miss," Issa told Fox News Digital.
"When ICE agents called for police support when they were being assaulted, they hunkered down and waited two hours before police responded because police couldn't get authority to react. So that alone gave a reason for the president to bring in additional federalized troops to protect the ICE agents."
On Tuesday, Fox News Digital exclusively reported Issa’s call for an investigation into the Department of Homeland Security’s claim that the LAPD took two hours to respond to assist ICE agents being assaulted on Friday night.
The LAPD, in a Sunday press conference, denied that allegation and said it took 40 minutes to respond due to traffic.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Issa told Fox News Digital that he finds it curious why Democrats have used the word "insurrection" to describe the Jan. 6th riots that lasted hours but have not used the term to describe what has unfolded in Los Angeles over several days.
"We heard the word ‘insurrection’ for a couple of years nonstop, and now in Los Angeles, when people are directly assaulting property and law enforcement, that's the very definition of insurrection; and particularly when they're doing it on behalf of people who are sitting in jails because they were arrested for crimes, not just for entering the country illegally but for actual felonies," Issa said.
"And it's sort of amazing to believe that high-ranking elected officials like Gov. Newsom would actually try to defend any of that action. And yet they're doing it."
Issa went on to say that Newsom’s response to the riots "might have worked in the era of print or maybe even the era of radio" but that video evidence of rioting from the scene makes his position untenable.
"Television and podcasts and everyone having a cellphone, those images are going to be what the American people [is going to] see when he tries to pretend that he was a good governor," Issa said. "They're going to see a failure to do his job and an absolute resistance against those who came in to do it for him."
Fox News Digital reached out to the offices of Newsom and Bass for comment.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is under fire by Republicans for how she is handling the ICE protests. (Getty Images)
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"Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals," Newsom said on Tuesday night. "His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses. That's just weakness. Weakness masquerading as strength. Donald Trump's government isn't protecting our communities. They're traumatizing our communities. And that seems to be the entire point."
"When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment we have feared has arrived. He's taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our Founding Fathers' historic project."
Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to AndrewMark.Miller@Fox.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/gop-lawmaker-flips-script-newsom-bass-defining-riots-one-word