While Fox News is actively promoting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ transporting of migrants from Texas to the Democratic-run state of California, the network’s purported “straight news” anchor Dana Perino was boasting that these illicit flights could provide valuable “earned media” to boost DeSantis’ prospects in the Republican primary — especially if he were to face any legal repercussions.

Perino previously worked as press secretary under Republican President George W. Bush, under whom she promoted immigration reform and even a path to U.S. citizenship. But in today’s political winds, Perino is instead talking up some of the most heartless and defiant acts of political demagoguery.

The New York Times reported that 16 migrants were flown from El Paso, Texas, to Sacramento, California, by a company paid by the state of Florida, according to documents in the migrants’ possession, “and dropped off outside a church building” last Friday with a “false promise of jobs.” There then followed a second flight of migrants arriving on Monday through the same operation.

The sheriff in Bexar County, Texas, filed misdemeanor and felony criminal charges on Monday in response to an operation last year where DeSantis’ office used Florida taxpayer funds to fly migrants from Texas to the Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard. The charges include unlawful restraint, which would be elevated to a felony in the cases of five migrants who were under the age of 17. (Fox News also publicly championed DeSantis’ cruel and potentially criminal acts in this previous case.) In addition, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta both publicly said that DeSantis and other individuals involved in the Sacramento migrant flights could face charges of kidnapping and false imprisonment.

During an appearance Tuesday on Fox & Friends, alongside Fox’s anti-immigrant reporter Bill Melugin and co-host Steve Doocy, Perino touted the potential criminal charges in Bexar County as not only being a boon to DeSantis’ campaign in the Republican primary, but also an aid to the argument that DeSantis is a strong political leader:

In fact, border crossings are going down, and far from DeSantis doing something “when President Biden will not,” as Perino described it, last year saw a record number of migrant apprehensions.

During another segment on Wednesday’s edition of America’s Newsroom, following a news update on the threat of potential kidnapping charges against DeSantis, which was floated as a possibility by Newsom, Perino responded with a stream of insults against the California governor.

“We were talking about the rivalry, I guess, between Governor Newsom and Governor DeSantis. I say ‘rivalry’ because — with a smile — I think that Gov. Newsom thinks he’s in a rivalry with Ron DeSantis,” Perino declared. “And that Ron DeSantis is like, ‘I’m not worried about you. You’re like, you’re little-league baseball,’ compared to where he is in terms of the major leagues, running for president. Gov. Newsom, if you want to run for president, go ahead and go for it.”

In the following discussion, Perino and conservative podcast host Dave Rubin agreed that the migrant flights and any threat of a legal fallout would only strengthen DeSantis in the Republican presidential primaries — in part, Rubin argued, because Republican primary voters would not view the flights as being immoral or scandalous.

Perino oddly referred to DeSantis’ transporting and dumping of human beings across the country as being both “earned media” but “not, you know, a campaign stunt.”