“BRING IT ON, GAVIN” – Karoline Leavitt Taunts Gavin Newsom for Threatening Lawsuit Over $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Demand (VIDEO)

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday dared California Governor Gavin Newsom to file a lawsuit against the Trump Administration for requesting $1 billion from the University of California, Los Angeles for antisemitism on campus. 

As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Trump administration is seeking a $1 billion settlement from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), citing antisemitism and other civil rights violations at the institution in exchange for restoring more than half a billion dollars in frozen grant funding to the university.

This is in addition to suspending $584 million in federal grants after the Justice Department said the school violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Per Politico, California Governor Gavin Newsom torched the Trump Administration, calling the move “extortion” and an attempt to “silence academic freedom,” and vowed to fight.

“He has threatened us through extortion with a billion-dollar fine unless we do his bidding,” Newsom said last week.

In a statement, Newsom said, “Freezing critical research funding for UCLA – dollars that were going to study invasive diseases, cure cancer, and build new defense technologies – makes our country less safe. It is a cruel manipulation to use Jewish students’ real concerns about Antisemitism on campus as an excuse to cut millions of dollars in grants that were being used to make all Americans safer and healthier. This is the action of a president who doesn’t care about students, Californians, or Americans who don’t comply with his MAGA ways.”

Newsom also has the backing of Jewish California Democrats. According to the Jewish News of Northern California:

The co-chairs of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, including state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-S.F.), are backing Gov. Gavin Newsom in a billion-dollar battle tied to the Trump administration’s crackdown on antisemitism at UCLA.

“This isn’t about protecting Jewish students — it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown,” read a statement co-signed by Newsom and six other Democratic state leaders, including Wiener and Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino). Wiener and Gabriel co-chair the Jewish caucus.

“As Jewish leaders and strong allies, we are united against Trump’s assault and will fight like hell because California will not bow to this kind of disgusting political extortion,” the statement read.

Leavitt responded to a potential lawsuit by California over the settlement demand with a simple four-word response during a press briefing on Tuesday: “Bring it on, Gavin.”

“This administration is well within its legal right to do this, and we want to ensure that our colleges and our universities are respecting the First Amendment rights and the religious liberties of students on their campuses,” she continued.

WATCH:

Reporter: Gavin Newsom has said that California is going to sue in response to the government’s demand for a billion dollars from UCLA over the DOJ’s anti semitism finding. Newsom has called this extortion and ransom, so I’m wondering what the White House’s response is to Newsom on UCLA.

Leavitt: Bring it on Gavin. This administration is well within its legal right to do this, and we want to ensure that our colleges and our universities are respecting the First Amendment rights and the religious liberties of students on their campuses, and UCLA has failed to do that. And I have a whole set of examples that I will forward to Gavin Newsom’s press office if he hasn’t seen them, himself.

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