Jacob Soboroff, a familiar face on MSNBC and NBC’s political and national correspondent, has a deeply personal connection to the Palisades Fire: he grew up in town, and is the son of L.A. “Chief Recovery Officer” Steve Soboroff.
Soboroff reported from the Pacific Palisades on January 8, with the fires still raging, visiting his boyhood home, which had burned down.
Soboroff infamously clashed with Donald Trump Jr. during the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last July, when he tried arguing with the candidate’s son about immigration policy.
As Breitbart News reported:
Reporter Jacob Soboroff said, “What is that change going to look like, Don? Practically, your father, as president, I think you would even say, was a divisive figure. What’s it going to look like in a second term?”
Trump Jr. said, “I don’t think … [he was] a divisive figure at all. I think the media created divisiveness around him. They lied about Russia collision, they said he was a traitor, they went after him in every which way as possible. If the media starts being an honest broker talking about the things he did, the prosperity he brought, the peace deals he signed around the world, rather than the disaster we’re living right now, I think you’d do everyone in the country a big favor.”
Soboroff said, “I know immigration is important to him. I covered the family separation crisis closely. Will we continue to see policies like separating 5,000 children deliberately from their parents?”
Trump Jr. said, “You mean the Obama administration?”
Soboroff said, “You know, they didn’t do that, sir. Will there be a second family separation policy?”
Trump Jr. said, “It’s M-S-D-N-C. So I expect nothing less from you. Clowns. Even today, even 48 hours later [after the assassination attempt], you couldn’t wait. You couldn’t wait with your lies and with your nonsense. So just get out of here.”
At the time of Jacob Soboroff’s visit to the Pacific Palisades, Steve Soboroff had not yet been appointed by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass to oversee the city’s recovery.
However, the younger Soboroff has not disclosed his father’s role in his subsequent reporting, such as a report Saturday on Sen. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) call for seasonal firefighters to be exempt from a federal hiring freeze.
(Firefighters in Los Angeles are typically employed by the city and the county, not the federal government. Personnel issues, including the city’s refusal to pre-deploy firefighters ahead of the extreme wind event Jan. 7, are at the core of debates over the local fire response.)
The terms of Steve Soboroff’s appointment have become controversial, after it was revealed that he is earning $500,000 for three months of work, funded by private philanthropy.
Last week, the city awarded a rebuilding contract to Hagerty Consulting after a process involving three firms that was conducted entirely behind closed doors. Soboroff had promised a competitive bidding process. No bids were made public.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
