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Attorney General Jeff Session was in California on Wednesday as part of his effort to end their so-call “sanctuary city” and “sanctuary state” policies that forbid local law enforcement from working with federal agents on immigration matters. During NBC Nightly News that evening, the network showed who’s side they took in the debate when they framed the story using Governor Jerry Brown’s hyperbolic declaration that it was a “war on California.”
“We turn to California now. One of a handful of states that extend protections to people living in this country illegally. They're known as sanctuary states,” announced anchor Lester Holt with “war on California” as the on-screen headline emblazoned over his shoulder. “Tonight, that policy has California locked in a bitter war of will and words with the federal government which has now sued the state over the policy.”
That narrative was repeated when Miguel Almaguer began his report by saying: “In Sacramento, new battle lines drawn in what the governor calls the war against California.” He highlighted the anti-Sessions protestors and played a clip of Brown decrying the AG’s visit as just a “press stunt by the highest law enforcement officer in the land.”
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