Newsom relishes role as Democratic attack dog

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom is digging into his role as one of Democrats’ most aggressive attack dogs.

In an onstage interview on Tuesday night, he ridiculed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden as juvenile. He derided Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign as a “belly flop.” He criticized spiking deficits under Donald Trump.

“The best thing that could happen to DeSantis,” Newsom said, pronouncing his campaign as all-but-over, “is tomorrow, he packs it in and keeps his money and fights another day.”

Newsom spoke to POLITICO at Sacramento’s California Museum before a live audience of Democratic and Republican state lawmakers, lobbyists and press.

His surrogacy for Biden will be more central this week when he heads to Chicago for high-level meetings with Biden campaign officials and organizers of the Democratic National Convention. Later this month, he’s expected to serve as a main Republican antagonist when GOP leaders gather at the Reagan Library in California’s Simi Valley for their second presidential debate.

It’s a natural posture for Newsom but one that happened after a circuitous route that took him from a Biden world irritant to a helpful voice and fundraiser and something of a favorite among many party insiders. His increased involvement on the national political scene is twofold. First, Newsom is among his party’s most skilled interlocutors — with one top Biden adviser recently musing that he cemented his status in that class by ably sparring with Fox News’ Sean Hannity this summer.

Secondly, there is a lack of major party stars outside the administration who have logged dedicated time on behalf of Biden.

Newsom’s strong defense of Biden isn’t entirely altruistic and comes with some clear political benefits for the governor down the line. But he also isn’t letting Democrats off the hook for holding back support for their party’s leader, urging them to fall in line behind Biden and “buck up.” Specifically, he alluded to the wallowing over Democrats’ pick and said Biden has a record they should be proud to tout. And in California, he has leaned into Democratic third rails like clearing homeless encampments and challenged activists as being too dogmatic on the issue.

But he hewed closer to the party line on culture war battles animating the national debate — mocking Republican school board members for elevating concerns about transgender children over subjects like reading and arithmetic.

“It’s perhaps the most important issue in public education today,” he deadpanned before turning serious and adding, “It’s amazing. These trans kids, they want nothing more than just to live. These culture wars have gone too far.”

At the same time, Newsom sympathized with parents who he said have been manipulated by the right for political purposes. “I don’t criticize those poor parents who have been ginned up. We’re going to give those vulnerable communities a voice.”

It’s the same culture war that Newsom believes was detrimental to DeSantis’ national ambitions. He cited the Florida Republican prioritizing corporate diversity efforts and educational curricula over pressing in-state issues like “the complete disaster” of rocketing homeowners insurance costs.

“He thought it was more important to threaten librarians by criminalizing banned books, banned speech,” Newsom said. “He has only himself to blame that he prioritized those issues over the issues that truly matter to the American people.”

He also took aim at McCarthy, suggesting the current Republican House Speaker’s leadership is a steep dropoff from Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.

“My Kevin will do what he needs to do — or what he’s told to do,” Newsom said, repeating Trump’s purported nickname for the Republican leader.

He lambasted McCarthy’s Bakersfield as the state’s “murder capital.” He then mocked McCarthy for reneging on his vow to seek a floor vote to begin the impeachment inquiries, instead of making the decision unilaterally, which the speaker did on Tuesday.

“There was emphasis on that intention just 11 days ago,” Newsom said. “Give me a break.”

Newsom went out of his way to add that he cleared his upcoming October trip to China with Biden officials, then swiped Trump again for good measure.

"Our deficit went up 11.5 percent under Trump; it's down 6.5 percent under Biden — $1.7 billion down and then the new debt deal where he ran circles around that guy McCarthy, down another trillion dollars, and we're just winding up on that,” he said.