Gov. Gavin Newsom‘s (D-CA) office gave an expletive-laced response on Monday to a reporter who asked about the governor’s dyslexia diagnosis and backlash over allegedly racist comments.
During the press interaction, a reporter asked the governor’s communications team a follow-up question about Newsom using the diagnosis to hit back at critics and whether or not he could provide any paperwork verifying his diagnosis.
In response, the staffer told the reporter to “respectfully, f*** off,” according to the email screenshots posted on X.
The exchange occurred after Newsom, a possible presidential candidate for 2028, faced intense criticism over remarks he made during a weekend book tour event in Atlanta, where he referenced his struggle with dyslexia and low SAT scores during a conversation with Mayor Andre Dickens.
“I’m like you. I’m a 960 SAT guy… You’ve never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech,” Newsom said to Dickens, a black man, during a conversation at the event promoting his new memoir, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.
The exchange was widely circulated online by conservatives as an example of “liberal racism,” or condescension toward black people.
Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL) took to X to drag Newsom, calling the comment “disgusting” and calling for his Democratic colleagues in Congress to demand that Newsom resign.
Newsom rebuffed the attacks from Republicans, and in a response to Fox News anchor Sean Hannity, he said his comments were misunderstood and rooted in personal struggles with a learning disability.
“You didn’t give a s*** about the President of the United States of America posting an ape video of President Obama or calling African nations s***holes,” Newsom said in response to Hannity sharing the video. “You’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia? Spare me your fake f***ing outrage, Sean.”
Newsom was referring to a screen grab video President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account that was largely about election counting technology, but after the election video concluded, a few seconds of the next video in Trump’s feed played in the screen grab, showing an apparent AI-generated image of the Obamas’ faces photoshopped onto two monkeys, perceived as a racist trope.