California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, “That is Gavin Newsom,” has Democrats in a tizzy. Republicans too.
It has been practically universally panned (or celebrated, relying in your political stripes) for being fawning towards his far-right friends — Charlie Kirk, Michael Savage and Steve Bannon — leaving pundits asking, why is Gavin Newsom handing Steve Bannon a megaphone? and who is Gavin Newsom’s podcast for?
Let me reply each of these. Like every part any politician does, the podcast is for the person himself. And to be truthful, nobody is handing Bannon a microphone as a result of he already has one larger than any Democrat’s. If something, by showing on the present, Bannon is letting Newsom trip his wake — that episode has helped enhance Newsom onto Prime 10 lists for listeners.
Put these two truths collectively and, regardless of how cringe and even appalling these first episodes have been (and oh, have they been appalling), the endeavor is undeniably good.
Newsom has lengthy been a scholar of the fitting, each its message and its mediums. He could also be one of many few Democrats who frequently listens to retailers reminiscent of Fox Information, and even the Kirks of the world. He’s additionally six years right into a job which may be the top of elected workplace for him, until he can discover a strategy to make himself viable for a presidential run — no simple job.
He understands there’s a new political order, and it’s not about rising by the ranks of the celebration or appeasing a base. It’s about viewers, politics apart, and Newsom is savvy sufficient to chase it.
If he pulls it off, he might make himself a lovely presidential candidate in a discipline crowded with likable white guys on one side (Tim Walz, Pete Buttigieg, JB Pritzker and Andy Beshear to call a number of) and everybody else on the opposite (Gretchen Whitmer, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, even Kamala Harris). However even when this media enterprise doesn’t open a path to the Oval Workplace, it might supply the Democratic Occasion a imaginative and prescient for methods to win again a slice of disinterested and disillusioned voters who handed President Donald Trump his slim victory.
Democrats are in shambles. They haven’t any heart and no consensus. And positively no discernible path towards wins in 2026 or 2028.
As a lot as there’s disarray, there’s additionally a divide inside the celebration. There’s the Ocasio-Cortez-Bernie Sanders crowd that desires to double down on progressive values. And there’s the large tent people who’re operating for the center floor like rats from fireplace, undone by the scorched earth insurance policies of our president.
Newsom could also be forging his personal path, politically and personally, making an attempt to seize an viewers that doesn’t actually know left from proper, and likes to dismiss reality in favor of “widespread sense.”
These voters could also be irritating, however they’re additionally key to wins.
In his first episode with Kirk, Newsom threw transgender athletes beneath the bus, agreeing with Kirk that, “it’s deeply unfair” for them to compete in opposition to girls. That’s a secure political place — almost 80% of Americans share it — however Newsom let Kirk gloss by with solely minimal pushback about the best way MAGA has demonized and weaponized transgender folks generally, leaving a neighborhood already topic to excessive ranges of violence in an much more precarious place.
In his interview with Bannon, he agreed Deep State-style that “there’s a clay layer of paperwork, and also you’re proper, unaccountable people making numerous choices,” and provided no dissent when Bannon claimed, “that is a part of the method to unwind you from being a globalist, to make you a populist nationalist. … It’s a protracted journey, however I believe you’ll get there.”
Newsom expressed disdain for conferences the place folks establish their pronouns, didn’t argue with Bannon when he forcefully claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and spent a very long time telling Kirk how a lot his teenage son was a fan.
Yuck.
The hazard, after all, with cuddling as much as extremists is getting coated of their scent. Newsom claims he desires to have respectful conversations with individuals who disagree, however MAGA doesn’t respect Newsom. One-way respect makes you a doormat, and until Newsom calls out his friends with extra drive, he dangers being the punchline as an alternative of the provocateur.
Voting knowledge professional Paul Mitchell surveyed California voters earlier than and after Newsom’s debut, and located his general favorability score fell by greater than 10 factors after folks watched a few of these clips. He additionally discovered that, “the Democrats felt tremendous double-crossed and the Republicans have been like … I agree with what he’s saying however he’s a liar.”
After being proven three bits from the Kirk podcast, Mitchell discovered that 26% of voters said it “harmed their perception” of Newsom, whereas 37% of self-identified liberals stated the clips “harmed their notion of the governor.”
However to a sure extent, what Democrats consider Newsom proper now could not matter that a lot. Democrats will, largely, nonetheless be Democrats once we all go to the polls once more.
It’s the disengaged voters that matter, and that had the ultimate say within the final election — the so-called “low info” voters who don’t observe politics all that a lot and get their often-questionable info from nontraditional sources.
Democrats, Mitchell warns, “are going to have to determine a strategy to convey the low info voters again to them.”
For younger males, whose well-being we’re all angsting about proper now, world views are being formed by the voices of the manosphere, reminiscent of Bannon and Kirk, who’ve polished their grievance rhetoric till it shines just like the civil rights speeches of previous. As soon as, it was Democrats who owned discuss of working folks and their struggles. Now, Bannon’s obtained that nailed.
“We imagine in bringing energy again to the grassroots degree,” he informed Newsom. “One of many causes is we predict the elites on this nation, you understand, the extremely educated elites, the political class, the Wall Road, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, all of it, have actually forgotten the underlying type of ideas of the nation and type of left working-class folks, no matter their race, gender, ethnicity, sexual choice. You recognize, you decide it, they’ve type of forgotten.”
That’s a seductive and highly effective message, and one Democrats used to personal.
Newsom could be one of many solely Democrats who actually understands simply how a lot of this working-class area has been misplaced to MAGA. If he can peel only a portion of that viewers off and provides them a Democratic take that resonates sufficient to hold into 2026 and past, he can have achieved each a formidable feat for himself and his celebration.
For himself, he can have established an influence outdoors the standard confines of politics — a type of affect that has been proven to be a brand new path to the highest by Republicans. It won’t clear the best way to the presidency, however it might open different choices.
Want proof?
Conservative former podcaster Dan Bongino was sworn in Tuesday as deputy director of the FBI. Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth used to work for Fox. Bannon has saved himself near the White Home in no small half due to the recognition of his “Conflict Room” present, giving him sufficient clout to problem even the king of social media energy, Elon Musk. (Bannon has known as Musk a “parasitic illegal immigrant.”)
Additionally Tuesday, Newsom dropped his first interview with a Democrat, Walz, and the 2 mused about methods to battle MAGA.
“These are dangerous guys,” Walz warned.
“However they exist,” countered Newsom. “We can not proceed to be on the protection.”
Even when the offense makes all of us cringe.
