California’s Governor Gavin Newsom (D) is pushing back and denying claims he forced the state’s AG to drop his lawsuit against Paramount and its merger with Warner Bros Discovery.
On Monday, news broke that radical Democrat state Attorney General Rob Bonta settled his lawsuit meant to torpedo the merger plans. Bonta reportedly elicited concessions from Paramount to keep the studio in California, and other concessions. Liberal detractors, though, were extremely unhappy with settlement.
Many blasted Bonta as a coward, but many also accused Gov. Newsom of pressuring Bonta to drop his lawsuit. Now, Newsome is clapping back at the accusations.
“I didn’t pressure anybody,” Newsom told Axios. “I made the point. I’ve made it very publicly and consistently and been reported maybe two or three hundred different ways that we, me, many folks, including the mayor, soon-to-be governor-elect [Xavier] Becerra and others, preferred in the words of Rob Bonta himself that he focus on getting this done at the boardroom, not the courtroom.”
“And the minute that Rob said that on CNBC, we amplified that, said this was a better approach. That was the framework, and he worked hard to deliver for California and I think he did,” he added.
Bonta has split hairs on dripping the lawsuit by claiming that the concessions he got are important, but that he still doesn’t approve of the merger.
Regardless, the left is alarmed that the merger’s path has been cleared to go forward, CNN staffers are reportedly terrified that Paramount chief David Ellison could end up having sway over the cable news network after taking control of the combined studios.
Far-left Democrat Senator Elizabeth Warren is also incensed that Bonta’s lawsuit was dropped. In a public statement, Warren called the end of the lawsuit a “disastrous outcome.”
“Allowing one Trump-aligned, foreign-owned conglomerate to dominate American news and entertainment is a disastrous outcome. After the Trump administration ran an apparently corrupt antitrust review process to wave through a blatantly illegal merger, this settlement greenlights an anti-monopoly disaster that will result in higher prices and fewer jobs, and enables a handful of billionaires to call the shots in the American media. Corporate executives for aspiring monopolies are always quick to offer unenforceable promises to close a deal, but it is workers and consumers who ultimately pay the price. The new Paramount behemoth is a clear candidate for antitrust scrutiny in a future pro-competition Administration,” she wrote.
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