California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been busy podcasting. Large parts of his state remain in ashes, so maybe he should be governing. But instead, I guess he wants to do what I do as a podcast host, which is fun but, you know, not what the people of California elected him to do.
He is out there trying to figure out how Donald Trump crushed the Democratic Party last November, and he is talking with some of the biggest names in MAGA world to do so. His first guest was Charlie Kirk and he has since spoken to Steve Bannon and Michael Savage.
As I told Charlie today (you can see our full conversation about his appearance here), I am in the camp of: Don’t train him and don’t help build his media brand. My own feeling is this guy is in training for 2028 against J.D. Vance or whoever the Republican nominee ends up being. We saw when he debated Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Hannity a couple years ago that he needs practice. He is not very good at debating, and I don’t think we should not be helping him.
There is also a possibility that what Newsom really wants is to be Charlie Kirk, not Donald Trump. Perhaps what he really wants is to be the next Bill Maher with an audience that is large and can appeal to both sides. Maybe that is his next invention. I am against either one, so I am just not in favor of the right giving him the time – notwithstanding the fact that Charlie did a great job and made a lot of news.
The Poll Numbers
As Charlie mentioned, the podcast is not going well for Newsom. He is taking a tremendous amount of heat from members of his own party and his favorability numbers are brutal.
Capitol Weekly, a nonprofit publication covering California politics, did a survey of 1,000 Californians who watched specific clips of Newsom’s interview with Charlie. The podcast only made 13 percent of voters have an improved perception of the governor, while 26 percent said it harmed their perception and 58 percent said it made no difference.
Among self-identified liberals, 37 percent said the snippets harmed their perception of the governor. Among those who have very favorable opinions of Gavin Newsom, he lost 16 percent support. So, Charlie was correct. Newsom is hurting himself with his liberal base by doing these interviews.
The thing about Gavin Newsom is he is not very good at pushing back. He is not going in there and doing battle with the Charlie Kirks and the Steve Bannons of the world. He is somewhat obsequious to be honest with you. It is very strange because you would think he is a moderate when you listen to him, but he is not.
On the trans stuff and virtually every other subject, he is as radical as they come. He is another Kamala Harris. But there is something about him – maybe as a people pleasing, vintage politician – that, what he gets across from these rhetorical war fighters, he feels the need to get their approval.
The Media Reaction
That is how it feels, and he is getting excoriated by the left in the press as a result. It is actually kind of amusing. On The View, Sunny Hostin was none too pleased. “I thought that that was one of the most inauthentic things I have seen Gavin Newsom… I’m terribly disappointed,” she decried. “I think you meet energy with energy, and what he did was he showed his pretty white teeth, and his cute face, and did nothing other than that, and I think it’s despicable.”
Kara Swisher suggested the interviews were dangerous during an appearance with Hostin and co. “I texted him about that. I’m like, ‘What are you doing,’” she recalled. “It wasn’t challenging people who are actually famously trollish and say lies and things like that. If you don’t push back on lies, they exist.”
Over on CNN, former Rep. Adam Kinzinger lamented the downfall of his own career. “I always thought [Newsom] was kind of a ‘he’ll be whatever he needs to be’ politician. This is way worse,” he said. “Look, there are many of us that actually – I’m not saying this for sympathy – but basically sacrificed a career taking on people like Steve Bannon… Democrats are ticked off at him and there is no Republican who is going to be like, ‘You know that California liberal? I like him.'”
That is amazing from Adam Kinzinger. ‘I sacrificed a career taking on people like Steve Bannon.’ Did you really? That is not how I remember it at all. You got Trump Derangement Syndrome, you decided to be an anti-January 6 warrior. You participated in the January 6 Committee (which was a completely dishonest show trial), and Republicans decided you weren’t their cup of tea. It was not Steve Bannon’s fault.
The Truth About Newsom
In any event, they are melting down on the left over what Gavin Newsom is doing, which is kind of fun. I mean, it almost makes me want to see it continue, but not really because – unlike Bill Maher, who definitely has a touch of the TDS but can be fair to Republicans – the way Gavin Newsom governs is truly radical.
There is nothing fair about the way he runs California when it comes to fairness to Republicans. Nothing. He has sided over and over with that lunatic State Sen. Scott Wiener in San Francisco. He is the one that Carrie Prejean Boller and Britt Mayer have been chasing down all over California on his radical trans ideology. I think he has only rejected that guy one time on his craziest trans agenda and now he wants to come out and say, ‘Oh, yeah, boys shouldn’t be in girls sports’? So, what have you done about it, you loon?
Newsom is like Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) who came out after the Dems lost the presidential election and claimed the trans issue had gone to far and girls sports should be protected because he has two daughters. I’m sorry, what? He voted in favor of allowing boys access to girls sports and girls private spaces every single chance he had as a U.S. congressman.
It is great that you can now go on a podcast or issue a press release saying you are on my side, but you govern and legislate 180 degrees the other way. I choose to look at what you have done, not what you have said when you are across from a conservative or a reporter confronting you with polls that show everybody is on the side of reason, which is to keep these boys out of these sports.
You can check out Megyn’s full analysis by tuning in to episode 1,029 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.