Gov. Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom have jointly “morphed into George Wallace,” said California gubernatorial candidate John Cox (R) on Thursday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight in an interview with co-hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

Brown’s and Newsom’s shared support for “sanctuary policies” across the Golden State — in violation of federal law — are analogous to George Wallace’s refusal to comply with federal orders to end racial segregation in Alabama in 1963, Cox said:

Did anybody notice how Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom have turned themselves, have morphed into George Wallace, standing at the schoolhouse door, saying they’re not going to obey federal law? That’s exactly what they’re doing. They’re basically saying that they don’t agree with federal law, therefore they’re not going going to enforce it. Is that what our country is based on?

Dubbing California’s governor “George Wallace-Jerry Brown,” Cox described “sanctuary policies” as dangerous to the rule of law:

The idea that George Wallace-Jerry Brown is going to stand there and say that he’s not going to abide by federal law is just an affront to people in our military that died, that gave the last measure of their lives to defend the rule of law and the United States as a bastion of the rule of the law.

“One of the first things I’ll do as governor of this state is just do what I can to get rid of these sanctuary [state policies],” said Cox.

California is “the new Confederacy” via its political leadership’s refusal to comply with federal immigration law, said Mansour.

Political corruption is the status quo of California, said Cox:

[In California], you’ve got the public sector unions, you’ve got trial lawyers, you’ve got big businesses like Verizon and Chevron, they pay the campaign costs of these politicians. They basically fund these politicians, and then they look to these same politicians to make decisions about legislation that they’re interested in. And of course, that basically is the definition of corruption. Yet that’s our system and that’s what we put up with. This system is indefensible and we have to change it.

Given Brown’s coming retirement in January of 2019 due to California’s gubernatorial two-term limit, Cox hopes to face Newsom in the general election, assuming he can make it past other Republicans and Democrat hopeful Antonio Villaraigosa, the former mayor of Los Angeles.

“Gavin Newsom is basically a walking, talking special interest. He’s a guy that was born on third base and thought he hit a triple,” said Cox. “He’s totally in the pocket of all the unions. I think the people of this state are sick of the corruption and special interest domination.”

Breitbart News Tonight airs Monday through Friday on SiriusXM’s Patriot channel 125 from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern (6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific).

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Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.