(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .
Yeah, about Newsom [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-03-06
I live in SF and have for a long time. I followed Gavin Newsom’s politics when he was an SF supervisor (in District 2, not my district), and he was my mayor and is my governor. I’ve known plenty of people who’ve worked with him, talked to him (or been talked at/yelled at by him), worked for him, or interviewed him. He’s one of the politicians whose career I know best because I’ve lived in the results of his actions and inactions for decades.
I said that his podcast was a bad idea. And all I really have to say here is “that didn’t take long.”
From today’s Chronicle, for example. The rest of the article is behind a paywall at www.sfchronicle.com/… but you’ll get the jist of it here. It’s about trans women.
In the interview for the debut issue of Newsom’s new podcast, the Democratic governor said he and conservative pundit Charlie Kirk had some common ground on the issue. Though he didn’t explicitly endorse a ban on trans athletes, Newsom said he thinks the practice of trans athletes competing on female sports teams is “deeply unfair.” “I think it's an issue of fairness,” Newsom said in the episode, which was released Thursday. “I completely agree with you on that.”
State political reaction was quick:
Assembly Member Chris Ward, D-San Diego, and Sen. Caroline Menjivar, D-Los Angeles, who chair the state Legislature’s LGBT caucus, said Newsom’s comments “profoundly sickened and frustrated” them.
But he also screwed up on education:
Newsom had pitched his show as a sort of friendly debating platform, but he did not push back on most of what Kirk said. He seemed to accept as fact various assertions Kirk made about California college campuses and k-12 schools, including that there are pornographic books in California elementary schools and that students can get degrees in “North African lesbian poetry” at UC Berkeley. At one point Kirk said podcasts are too "masculine" for Democrats to perform well on as a platform. Newsom asked him what he meant by that, but didn't disagree.
The response locally has also been quick. For example, this is from an email from my local state senator, Scott Wiener:
Today, Governor Gavin Newsom released a podcast episode featuring Charlie Kirk – a full-blown anti-LGBTQ MAGA extremist. In the episode, Newsom states that he is in "complete alignment" with Kirk on transgender people’s participation in sports, legitimizing one of the loudest voices pushing anti-trans rhetoric nationwide. This is beyond unacceptable. Trans people are already under attack nationwide – facing hate, discrimination, and violence fueled by rhetoric like Kirk’s. They don’t need their allies siding with the very people trying to erase them.
Nancy Pelosi is my representative and she hasn’t sent out anything yet or put anything on her website. But she is on the record as recently as February 24 as standing with trans people and the trans community and trans women athletes (it’s in The Advocate at www.advocate.com/...)
Want more? This is from Stephen Council’s article in SF Gate (no paywall):
The governor came across as unprepared, malleable and strangely self-effacing. He pushed back only occasionally, and only on Kirk’s most absurd claims. He let Kirk crow about President Donald Trump being a “cultural phenomenon,” and he stood by as the influencer framed social debates in over-dramatic terms. Newsom — the six-year Democratic governor of America’s most populous state and a potential 2028 presidential candidate — even repeatedly asked for the provocateur’s advice on campaign strategy.
I’m waiting to see what the response from education is.
[END]
---
[1] Url:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/6/2308430/-Yeah-about-Newsom?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web
Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.
via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/
