Podcaster Gavin Newsom, who is also the governor of California, returned Thursday after a two-day swing through rural South Carolina in the midst of ongoing wildfires and immigration raids in his own state.
Newsom’s return to California was evidently considered newsworthy enough that the governor’s office issued a press release late Thursday: “Governor Gavin Newsom has returned to the state,” it said.
Newsom marked the six-month anniversary of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires on Monday and promptly left for the Palmetto State, which is now the first state on the Democratic Party primary calendar.
There were 13 active wildfires in California at the time, as well as ongoing clashes between left-wing protesters and police over Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on the amnesty-friendly state.
Newsom has a history of shirking his duties — whether dining out at the French Laundry during coronavirus lockdowns, or leaving the country during blizzards, or launching a podcast as residents struggled with natural disasters..
While in South Carolina, Newsom tried to charm rural voters, particularly black voters, who are a minority of the Democratic Party primary electorate but a majority in South Carolina, and not always a liberal one.
Politico described the tour as an attempt by Newsom to confront what it called his “California problem”: “a sense among some Democrats in South Carolina that California’s liberal reputation may hobble him.”
The article did not seem to consider that Newsom himself might be as liberal as his state, and sometimes even more so, launching same-sex marriage in the U.S. two decades ago when he was mayor of San Francisco.
During his tenure as governor, Newsom has also signed legislation to prevent parents from being informed of children’s gender changes at school, and to fine school districts that reject the state’s LGBTQ+ curriculum.
The other “California problem,” Newsom’s poor record, did not come up in the Politico article, but his “brawl” with President Donald Trump “reinforced his image as an unflinching leader,” author Tyler Katzenberger wrote.
It may be that Democrats are less interested in a governor who can show a record of accomplishments, and more interested in one who can lead the charge against Trump, who will not be on the ballot again in 2028.
In that vein, Newsom found time this week to attack Trump on social media for an immigration raid on a marijuana farm, and to insult conservative commentator Chaya Raichik, whom he called a “shit poster.”
While Newsom condemned the raid on the farm, a post on X by Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott added context: the farm was not just employing illegal aliens, but also children.
A recent poll of California voters showed that a majority believe that Newsom is too focused on himself.
The South Carolina primary is roughly two-and-a-half years away; Newsom has 18 more months as governor.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
Read the full article here