Governor Newsom’s Podcasting Overtures to the Right May Just Backfire

Governor Newsom is courting controversy with his new podcast by talking about the country’s masculinity crisis and finding common ground with Trump allies like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk. Is this political suicide or a stroke of brilliance?Mr. Newsom’s first guest on his podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” was conservative activist and founder of Turning Point USA, Mr. Kirk. Mr. Newsom joked with Mr. Kirk about how his 13-year-old son is a fan. He also claimed his office never used the word “Latinx” — fact check: false — and flipped his position on allowing transgender participation in women’s sports.“It’s an issue of fairness. I completely agree with you on that,” Mr. Newsom said, adding that he’d thought about this for a couple years. That’s certainly news to anyone paying attention.“He’s trying to tell blue-collar people and others that he’s not one of the crazy Democrats,” a Democratic strategist, Hank Sheinkopf, tells the Sun. “Well, he’s going to have to undo a lot of years of being crazy.”It’s unorthodox for a progressive California governor — considered a frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2028 — to be hosting a podcast, but his guest roster and seeming shift to the center are what’s ringing alarm bells. Mr. Newsom’s second guest was the architect of Trumpism, Mr. Bannon. His most recent guest was Minnesota governor and Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Tim Walz.Mr. Newsom found common ground with Mr. Bannon on economic populism and wanting to bring back manufacturing jobs from overseas. “I want to convert you to be a tariff guy also,” Mr. Bannon said. “This is part of the process to unwind you from being a globalist to make you a populist nationalist. It’s a long journey but I think you’ll get there.”Mr. Newsom replied, “This is part of the deprogramming, is it?” They both laughed.When Mr. Bannon said that President Trump won the 2020 election, Mr. Newsom didn’t push back. They both agreed on their dislike of Elon Musk. “You loved all the oligarchs until they flipped,” Mr. Bannon teased.“He’s engaging with the right, trying to understand the right, and almost acquiescing to the right. And it seems as if his political stock, at least among the left — and the right — is plummeting,” a Republican strategist, Matthew Bartlett, tells the Sun of Mr. Newsom. “That certainly does not seem to be a good jump off for a presidential campaign.”The hosts of ABC’s “The View” are having a meltdown about their handsome golden boy giving “zero pushback” to Mr. Bannon. “What he did was he showed his pretty white teeth and his cute face and did nothing other than that,” Sunny Hostin said. “And I think it’s despicable.” Mr. Newsom’s first Democratic guest was Mr. Walz, in an episode released Tuesday. Mr. Newsom brought up the fact that men are fleeing the party, and that this shift, particularly among Hispanic and Asian men, is what helped Mr. Trump win.“We’re losing them,” Mr. Newsom said of men. “We’re losing them to these guys online. We’re losing them to people I’m bringing on this podcast.”“These are bad guys though,” Mr. Walz said. “You don’t think it’s racism and misogyny?”“I think there is a lot of that, but I don’t think it’s exclusively that,” Mr. Newsom said. “When you talk to a guy like Steve Bannon, he reminded me a little bit of my grandfather when he talks about working folks and he talks about how we hallowed out the industrial core of this country.”“I can’t message to misogynists,” Mr. Walz said.“I think when we say people are misogynists then we’re falling prey, we’re in that frame. Not everyone that disagrees with us is a misogynist,” Mr. Newsom said.Mr. Newsom sounds quite reasonable, but his record leading the state of California is hard to erase. “Memory is the great enemy of political campaigns,” Mr. Sheinkopf says.The Democratic Party is in turmoil. Two new polls from NBC and CNN find only 27 and 29 percent of Americans respectively view the Democratic Party favorably. Yet 57 percent of Democrats say they want the party to fight the Trump agenda, not look for common ground.“Candidly speaking, if you’re looking at DC or across the country, the left does not want moderation. The left does not want understanding. They want deep partisan, 2018 Trump hatred on steroids, and that’s not what he’s presenting,” Mr. Bartlett says.Mr. Newsom coming around to a position against transgender participation in women’s sports may seem like a smart political move, since 80 percent of the country agrees. Yet Mr. Bartlett says in the world of politics it’s not that simple. Mr. Newsom also refused to answer a reporter’s question about this earlier this week.“80 percent of Americans are not voting in the Democratic presidential primary,” Mr. Bartlett says. The right dominates the podcast space. Mr. Trump appeared during the campaign on some of the largest podcasts that appeal to men: Joe Rogan, Theo Von, and Andrew Shulz. Kamala Harris declined an invitation to appear on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” Mr. Newsom’s foray into podcasting is an apparent attempt to capture some of this audience and reframe himself as moderate and concerned about the working class.“Is he trying to be the anti-Kamala from California? The answer is yes,” Mr. Sheinkopf says. “Will it be successful? 50-50 on a good day.”

Governor Newsom’s Podcasting Overtures to the Right May Just Backfire

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