Conservative media personality Charlie Kirk cautioned the Republican Party not to dismiss Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) as a growing threat to the GOP as the California Democrat emerges as a top contender for the 2028 presidential election.
Last week, Kirk became the first guest Newsom invited onto his new podcast, and the two men enjoyed a mostly cordial conversation. The governor even said his teenage son is “a fan” of the conservative activist.
However, in a Fox News op-ed Kirk released Thursday that reflected on the podcast appearance, he warned Republicans to be on their guard against Newsom. Kirk argued that the governor’s demeanor and newly centrist views on issues such as transgender athletes are nothing more than a farce designed to attract voters ahead of a likely presidential run in three years.
“One thing I learned in my podcast experience: The governor isn’t a joke. He has a shark’s instincts and is hoping that voters will have a goldfish’s memory,” Kirk wrote. “He knows his current record can’t win him the White House, and so he’s trying to rewrite what that record is. The conservatives he speaks with in the weeks to come shouldn’t let him.”
When Newsom launched his podcast, This is Gavin Newsom, in February, the governor characterized the venture as an effort to have “honest discussions with people that agree and disagree with us” and as an avenue to have conversations with “some of the biggest leaders and architects of the MAGA movement.”
Kirk cast doubt on those reasons Thursday.
“Newsom wants to be president more than any living person. … He is an ambitious man, and his new podcast is clearly a product of that ambition,” the GOP activist continued. He argued that by “talking to conservative figures like me,” the governor could help “increase his recognition, help him present as a centrist, and cast him as a champion of the Left.”
Kirk also questioned why Newsom “acted like he had to check his notes to remember” when he was asked about his past support for Proposition 16, a pro-affirmative action ballot measure the governor endorsed in 2020 that would have allowed public institutions to make hiring decisions based on race and sex. California voters overwhelmingly rejected the measure, choosing to keep in place a 1996 prohibition on discrimination or preferential treatment on the basis of race and sex.
“Gavin didn’t need any notes: What he was doing was a stall tactic. Before he ties himself down on that issue, he wants to see where the winds blow the next few years,” Kirk wrote.
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Kirk said voters “shouldn’t fall for this pivot” and instead examine Newsom’s policies on crime, economy, and social issues to discover his true political ideology.
“Fortunately, swerving to the center won’t be that simple for Gavin,” he said. “Under his watch shoplifting became so rampant that pharmacies had to lock up their toothpaste. Newsom’s California loses over 200,000 people a year in out-migration to other states.”