California was 'begging me for a wall' Trump says with no evidence

In this file photo taken on March 13, 2018 US President Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego. In this file photo taken on March 13, 2018 US President Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes in San Diego. Photo: Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images Photo: Mandel Ngan, AFP/Getty Images Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close California was 'begging me for a wall' Trump says with no evidence 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

In the midst of a wide-ranging and, at times, rambling press conference Wednesday, President Donald Trump claimed again that California was "begging" him to build a wall along the border with Mexico.

"I went to the border. It's going up in New Mexico, it's going up in Arizona, it's going up in California, believe it or not. They really wanted that wall in California, in San Diego," he said. "As soon as it was completed, they said, 'We don't want a wall.'

"They were begging me for a wall. I should take it out and move it to another location."

Trump did not supply evidence that California was "begging" for a border wall. A Public Policy Institute of California poll released in February showed only 28 percent of Californians were in favor of building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

MORE: "They really wanted that #wall in #California." @realDonaldTrump gives a progress report on the #borderwall. "As soon as it was completed they said 'we don't want a wall.' They were begging me for a wall. I should take it out and move it to another location." pic.twitter.com/0u5aAONUJV — Anna Trinidad (@ATrinKTVU) September 25, 2019

A Pew Research Center study in January found that 58 percent of Americans oppose "substantially expanding" the border wall.

MORE: Trump ends press conference with bizarre claim Pelosi is 'no longer Speaker of the House'

It is a claim Trump has made before — with the exact same language.

"The state of California is begging us to build walls," he said during a visit to the border near San Diego in 2018.

"California is not 'begging' you for this wall," then-Lt. Gov Gavin Newsom tweeted at the time. "Your wall is a waste of money and is literally impossible to complete. It will look more like a piece of swiss cheese than an insurmountable barrier. It's nothing more than a 6th century solution to a 21st century problem."

PolitiFact California, which does fact-checks of politicians, rated Trump's "begging" assertion a "pants on fire" claim.

Wednesday afternoon's news conference, Trump's first since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi launched a formal impeachment inquiry on Tuesday, was meant to be a wrap-up of the president's three-day United Nations General Assembly meetings. Instead, it turned combative and accusatory.

Trump repeated his assertion that impeachment proceedings are a "witch hunt" constructed by Democratic senators because they "can't beat" Republicans at the ballot box.

"If you go by the college, electoral college, that is a much different race than running popular vote. And it is like the hundred-yard dash or the mile. You train differently," he said. "And I can't help it that my opponent didn't go to Wisconsin and should have gone much more to Michigan and Pennsylvania and other places. But that is the way it is. We won an election convincingly."

Katie Dowd is an SFGATE Senior Digital Manager. Email: katie.dowd@sfgate.com | Twitter: @katiedowd