CLAIM: Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) says crime hit “50-year lows” in California, despite higher crime rates than the national average.
VERDICT: MOSTLY FALSE. National rates overall are lower than decades ago, but crime in California has risen in recent years.
Newsom claimed in his debate on the Fox News Channel with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) that crime rates are at “50-year lows” in his state “since the 1990s.”
DeSantis did not miss the opportunity to point out that Newsom’s claim contrasted with the experience of most California residents, who have seen a retail exodus from San Francisco due to shoplifting, and who find even common items at convenience stores “under lock and key” because of the problem of theft in other California cities as well.
Left-wing prosecutors, such as (now-ousted) Chesa Boudin in San Francisco and George Soros-backed George Gascón in Los Angeles, have declined to prosecute many violent felons, and are widely blamed by the public for the decline in public safety.
Newsom is basing his claim on the fact that crime has, in fact, declined nationwide, including in California. But as host Sean Hannity pointed out in his question, California’s crime rate is higher than the national average — which Newsom did not explain.