California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) mocked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Trump in a post on the social platform X on Sunday amid tension between the governor and the Trump administration over protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In response to a Sunday post on X from Hegseth featuring a screenshot of another post from Trump on his Truth Social platform congratulating the National Guard for doing a “great job” in Los Angeles following “two days of violence, clashes and unrest,” Newsom mocked Hegseth and Trump as “smart guys.”
“Smart guys running the operation. The National Guard wasn’t even deployed on the ground when Trump posted this. Pete Hegseth runs the Pentagon as well as he throws an axe on a Fox News set,” Newsom said in his own X post on Sunday, referencing a 2015 incident in which a man was struck by an axe tossed by Hegseth.
I guess I was looking for specifics. Have you listened to the full interviews?
This kind of comment sounds like you’ve only read headlines/internet comments or seen the controversial clips. But can you say specifically what he supports or doesn’t support that makes him not a democrat?
Ok, false and I don’t think my comments convey that at all but here you go.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAzPv01GIKc
Don’t take my word for it, though it sounds like you won’t anyways so I guess I didn’t need to say that lol.
Gavin Newsom is the perfect villain for Trump to fight against from his perspective because he is also a scumbag so Trump will never actually feel threatened by Newsom as he can always get attacked from within his party for saying and doing heinous shit (which is something corporate democrats would like too, then they could rationalize cracking down on unhelpful leftists that “keep losing us elections with their shrill truthful voices”).
I did want to comment about this YouTube video because I think so many people heard the specific clip she played and literally nothing else and formed their opinion.
I get that hardcore democrats take issue with him saying that the trans athlete issue is an issue of fairness. But I think his opinion represented the majority of Americans right now. So agree or disagree, but this is not a fringe opinion.
Furthermore, she cut off the podcast right after he says “There’s also a humility and a grace”. I think it’s important to point out the full quote because he is absolutely not against trans people. He sees them as people and cares about them and their feelings. Charlie Kirk and JK Rowling do not see them as people. This is a difference worth pointing out.
Maybe he would not handle trans athletes exactly the way you want, but he would absolutely try to handle them in a way that is compassionate to them. He talks more about trans students later that I found interesting.
Charlie Kirk proceeded to ignore this comment. I will say as much as Newsom did not push back as much as I would have, I still ended this podcast recognizing how much Kirk suuuuuuucks. I had no idea who he was before, but I’m glad I have this reference now.
Let me say this again, cause you ignored the most important part of my comment.
Can you say specifically what he supports or doesn’t support that makes him “not a democrat”? Or even “not a liberal”?
With that said, I have listened to every episode of his podcast. I find them sometimes interesting and sometimes frustrating, but I have yet to hear him say things that make me doubt he is a democrat. He says things that some democrats disagree with, but democrats do not all share the same opinions.
The purpose of his show, from what I can gather, is to show how you can find common ground with people you disagree with. And you cannot do this by invalidating somebody’s opinions. So he invites people on that suck, ie Charlie Kirk, Steve Bannon, Newt Gingrich, lets them say all the things they want to say with minimal fact checking, then where he can, he will point out the ways their opinions align with democrats. Then forces them to admit the commonality between the two.
Yes I know this is what brainwormed centrists see when they watch it, the rest of us see someone who is platforming Charlie Kirk, Steven Bannon, and New Gingrich like they are reasonable people to have a conversation with who espouse reasonable positions and don’t threaten violence and bigotry towards vulnerable groups because these people are intellectually braindead and can’t come up with any interesting arguments to hold their audience’s attention hence the stoking of xenophobia in all its horrifying diversity of forms.
No, you treat these people like Sam Seder or Hasan Piker does, you dismantle them mercilessly with your rhetoric and show how little they have thought through their beliefs and yet how much conviction they stick to their vile hatred with even when that is pointed out. The world needs to see that and a politician like Gavin Newsom is specifically well situated to obscure it by having a pleasant conversation with them.
You can disagree with “platforming” all you want, but that still doesn’t make him “not a democrat”. And you can point out a couple areas where he might not agree with many democrats (but not all), but that still doesn’t disqualify him from being a democrat. It just recognizes that the Democratic Party has more variety in beliefs than places like Reddit and Lemmy would want you to believe.
These people that he is talking to don’t need “platforming”. They already have a large enough platform without him. And the fact that democrats lost to Trump this time around should be enough to recognize that their messages are resonating in some way.
And your instinct (as well as mine) is to shut that message down with strong debate and fact checking. The only thing this will accomplish is ending the conversation. Sure, Sam Seder would destroy Steve Bannon, but that’s exactly why they aren’t having that debate. And as a result, we will never hear their message and will never understand what about that message is actually resonating with voters. But the message will continue to resonate nonetheless.
Newsom lets them talk, lightly pushes back or looks for common ground, but does not attempt to invalidate them. As a listener, I gain a better understanding of who these people are and why people are still voting for Trump. I recognize their flaws without needing Newsom to point them out.
I digress… none of this makes me think he is not a democrat. He may disagree with other democrats on some issues, but that’s allowed. That’s why they have debates. You got a list of reasons why Newsom is not a democrat, I’d love to hear it.