Conservatives see through Newsom. But they should not assume that everyone does.
Conservatives see through Newsom. But they should not assume that everyone does.
D ianne Feinstein, Democratic senator from San Francisco, has died at the age of 90, and California governor Gavin Newsom has promised to appoint a black woman as a temporary replacement. On Friday’s episode of The Editors, we discussed the somewhat facetious suggestion that Feinstein’s replacement could be Kamala Harris. That way, Democrats could parachute Newsom into the vice presidency, making him better positioned to succeed Biden should circumstances demand it.
Demoting Harris (whose approval ratings are even worse than Biden’s) may be an amusing prospect, but Gavin Newsom’s presidential shadow campaign is no joke. With Biden-Harris, conservatives have gotten used to political enemies being scandal-ridden, gaffe-prone, and unable to speak coherently even when on-script. But that is a low threshold that Newsom easily clears. He is a highly presentable, smooth-talking, skilled political operative peddling the same dangerous ideas in a far more effective way.
Newsom knows the strategic risk of challenging a sitting president of one’s own party. He has repeatedly denied having any presidential ambitions for 2024, stressing his loyalty to Biden and his party. Nevertheless, he appears to be enjoying the attention garnered by his regular media appearances and headline-grabbing stunts.
Last Sunday, Cecilia Vega interviewed Newsom for CBS News’s 60 Minutes. The subject was California’s homelessness problem. Vega asked whether the governor’s priority of tackling the issue was part of a “potential presidential run.” Newsom responded, “I’m never going to overpromise that in the short run.” Vega asked whether that was a yes or no. Newsom responded that it was “a never-ending response to your question.”
But how does a conversation about a serious governmental failure become a conversation about presidential ambitions? You could blame Vega — or you could credit Newsom.
During the segment, Newsom persuasively explained his support of CARE Court, which attempts to tackle homelessness by requiring adults found to have severe untreated psychotic disorders to receive treatment, which, if refused, can be imposed on them by court-ordered conservatorship. The program was backed with near-unanimous and bipartisan support in the state legislature. It is opposed by the ACLU, among other groups.
Vega said: “Some of the words used to describe CARE Court: coercive, harmful, backwards. Are any of those fair?” Newsom laughed. “You laugh,” she said, disapprovingly. “I laugh,” Newsom replied, adopting a more serious tone, not “dismissively” but rather out of exhaustion for “those talking points that have been on rewind for decades and decades.” Ah.
Take another highly visible pivot toward the center: Last week, the governor vetoed a string of progressive legislation relating to transgenderism, labor unions, and immigration. Is Newsom now a moderate on these issues? Of course not. He has vowed to make California a “sanctuary state” for abortion and medicalized gender transitions for minors and has expanded Medi-Cal to cover illegal immigrants. His letter in response to Assembly Bill 957, a bill that would have required judges to evaluate a parent’s willingness to encourage transgender identification in deciding custody disputes, explained that such a bill was unwise in part because existing California law already allows judges to interpret a lack of parental “affirmation” as detrimental to children’s welfare.
In his interview with Sean Hannity in June, Newsom said: “I reformed our CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] bills; I’ve done it as it relates to vegetation, forest management, related forest fires. I’m not an idealogue on any of this. I’ve not argued for an increased tax rate on the top 1 percent. But it’s been around for a decade” and, he claims, “protects the middle class.”
By the end of the interview, Newsom had Hannity basically encouraging him to run for president: “You’re far more articulate, for more versed, far more energetic [than Biden].”
On Wednesday, at the second GOP presidential primary debate, Newsom, who was attending as a representative of his party, was asked again by Hannity whether he would accept the Democratic nomination to run for president in 2024 “under any circumstances at all.” Newsom answered “of course not. It’s a hypothetical. It’s ridiculous. Joe Biden is our president.” But while it’s hypothetical, he knows full well it’s not ridiculous. Joe Biden is president. But for how much longer?
Newsom will have his time to shine at a Fox News debate with Ron DeSantis later this year. When asked by CBS News why he wanted to debate DeSantis, Newsom replied that he doesn’t particularly. “I think it’s extraordinary that he does. He’s running for president of the United States. I’m not.” He added that DeSantis’s decision to debate “some guy in California” is “embarrassing” and ought to be an electoral “disqualifier.” Surely, it’s qualifying for Newsom as a shadow presidential candidate to be debating a presidential candidate.
We already have a preview of what the debate would look like. Ron DeSantis would point out that people are leaving California in droves and would say it is on account of Newsom’s policies. Newsom would hit back, as he did on Hannity, saying that these figures were “anomalous” to the pandemic years and have “already slowed down.” He would point to “independent studies” backing his claims, then move on to justifying his policies by invoking an endless supply of facts, and figures, and even drawing similarities between himself and Ronald Reagan.
A few months ago, my colleague Jeff Blehar wrote that a Newsom candidacy would be “more amusing than anything California’s entertainment industry has (intentionally) generated in years.” But I fear that if he gets within any real grasp of the presidency, a Newsom candidacy wouldn’t be amusing at all.
Remember in 2020 when Joe Biden campaigned on being decent and dependable? He didn’t have half of the charisma Newsom does. Conservatives may see through him, but they shouldn’t assume that everyone does.