Newsom signals strong support for Biden despite earlier concerns about 2024 bid
Julia Johnson
Video Embed
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) expressed his support for President Joe Biden in his 2024 reelection campaign despite previous concerns that the California politician may try to dethrone him.
Biden announced his reelection campaign on Tuesday morning. “The question we are facing is whether in the years ahead we have more freedom or less freedom, more rights or fewer,” he told viewers in the video announcement. “I know what I want the answer to be, and I think you do too. This is not a time to be complacent. That’s why I’m running for reelection.”
FOX NEWS AND POPULAR PRIME-TIME HOST TUCKER CARLSON PART WAYS
Afterward, Newsom responded to the announcement, offering his support to the current president.
“Our democracy is under attack. Our freedom is being stripped away. It’s time to step up—and there’s no one better to lead that fight than President Biden. Looking forward to another 4 years of his leadership. Let’s show up big today. Every dollar counts,” he wrote, urging followers to donate.
https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1650862280098328584?s=20
Newsom has said several times in the past year that he was not interested in the presidency in 2024.
He even revealed that he committed to support Biden’s reelection effort as long ago as last year.
“I’ve told everyone in the White House, from the chief of staff to the first lady … I’m all in; count me in,” he said in an interview last year.
Despite this, Newsom’s focus on the national political landscape has left some wondering about his intentions.
The California governor has targeted his red-state counterparts on several occasions. Last year, Newsom launched a billboard campaign in red states advertising abortion in California. In a series of tweets at the time, he called out Republican Govs. Kristi Noem (SD), Greg Abbott (TX), Mike DeWine (OH), Eric Holcomb (IN), Tate Reeves (MS), Henry McMaster (SC), and Kevin Stitt (OK) for their “restrictive” abortion laws.
Last summer, Newsom created an account on former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform, which he said was to call “out Republican lies.” He used the platform sporadically to target red states, at one point claiming there was a “red-state murder problem.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Even more recently, Newsom has honed in on a rival in Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). Criticizing everything from the governor’s feud with Disney to laws protecting parental rights in education to abortion policy in the state, he hasn’t held back. He additionally took a trip to DeSantis’s home turf, where he visited the New College of Florida, which was recently subjected to a shake-up on its board of trustees under the DeSantis administration.
Some questioned why Newsom would be making such plays for national attention if he wasn’t running in 2024, but others indicate that the governor may have the long game in mind. “Building a national profile now, the most likely scenario where that really comes to fruition is for 2028,” Eric Schickler, political science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, reportedly said of the governor’s motive.