What Is Gavin Newsom Doing?

Susan Estrich on Mar 22, 2025

There is an obvious answer to what California Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing. He's running for president. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. He is nothing if not ambitious. He's termed out as governor and in two years will be looking for a place to land.

But he's doing it all wrong, and it's offensive to the very base he is going to need to win the Democratic nomination.

At a time when Democrats are desperately looking for a leader who will stand up to Donald Trump, Newsom is cozying up to the worst of the Trumpers. He is moving to the center -- or more accurately, to the right -- as if that is what Democrats want. How dumb does he think we are?

California is struggling. We could use a leader. Instead, we have a podcaster. He should stick to his day job -- and do it better.

"This is Gavin Newsom" is the name of his new podcast. In his first two outings, he chatted it up with right-wing MAGA maniacs Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon.

Kirk, who runs a group called Turning Point USA, is a radical right-winger. He has been outspoken in denying the results of the 2020 election, spreading COVID disinformation and attacking civil rights. He has argued that "MLK was awful" and "not a good person," and that birth control "really screws up female brains." According to Slate, Kirk said at a Turning Point event that contraception "is awful, it's terrible, and it creates very angry and bitter young ladies and young women. Then that bitterness then manifests into a political party that is the bitter party. I mean, the Democrat Party is all about 'bring us your bitterness and, you know, we'll give you free stuff.'"

Did Newsom take him on for his racism and sexism? He did not. Apparently, he thinks Kirk is someone we should be listening to. Why?

And Bannon? He's a purveyor of anti-immigrant hate. Indicted for money laundering, pardoned by Trump, whose campaign he ran in 2016, and convicted on multiple contempt charges, he spent four months in prison. He is well known for the strategy that Trump is following to "flood the zone" to overwhelm Congress and the media and dismantle the federal state.

Did Newsom take him on for his history of hate? Did he ask him about his Nazi-like salute at the Conservative Political Action Conference? He did not. Apparently, he thinks we should also be listening to Bannon.

That's what he told Tim Walz in his latest podcast. When Walz called out Bannon's racism and misogyny, Newsom defended the hater, saying, "I don't think it's exclusively that," praising Bannon for talking about working folks and comparing him favorably to "a lot of what Bernie Sanders was saying." Did Hitler also do some good things?

But what has troubled me most about Newsom's latest campaign for the White House is his gratuitous assault on transgender women playing sports. In his podcast with Kirk, Newsom went out of his way to tank this most vulnerable population. "I think it's an issue of fairness," he told the MAGA maniac. "I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness -- it's deeply unfair. I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you."

The last thing the Democratic Party needs right now is leaders who "totally agree" with Charlie Kirk.

Newsom is running a general election campaign. He thinks he can attract white male voters by moving to the middle and cozying up to the haters. But you have to win the nomination first. The voters who Newsom is trying to appeal to don't vote in Democratic primaries. And the people who do aren't likely to find his new friends -- and new targets -- very appealing. And rightly so.

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To find out more about Susan Estrich and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.