California Gov. Gavin Newsom went somewhere he hadn’t been in more than 13 years: Fox News, where he squared off with the channel’s star host, Sean Hannity, for an hour-long interview-turned-debate.
During the interview, Newsom explained his long, ongoing conflict with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a GOP presidential candidate, defended his state’s policies and pushed back against assertions that President Joe Biden is incapable of leading during a second term in office.
“I would bet, on a daily basis, that there are people urging you to run for president and primary him,” Hannity said, attempting to lead the governor to an answer.
Newsom didn’t bite.
“My phone lights up with Republican friends saying ‘you know what, despite all of the rhetoric, these bipartisan bills he keeps passing — on infrastructure, and the CHIPS and Science Act, the bipartisan work he did on gun legislation reform and the debt ceiling — makes me feel maybe he’s done a little bit better job,” Newsom replied.
The governor continued to defend Biden, even as the Fox News host ran a blooper reel of Biden’s missteps and misstatements during public speeches, apparently seeking to portray the president as unfit for office.
“I don’t think he’s capable, I know he’s capable. I see results,” Newsom said, talking up gains in manufacturing, on infrastructure and COVID recovery. He also deflected against Hannity’s questions about a potential 2024 presidential candidacy, though he ultimately refused to confirm or deny whether or not people are asking him to run.
Newsom also pushed back on Hannity’s assertion that there is a binary between Republican voter beliefs and Democratic voter beliefs, which he termed as ”immigration security” and “law and order” versus “open borders” and “defund, dismantle (the police).”
“I don’t see those binaries at all,” Newsom said. “I want border security, Democrats want border security, I want comprehensive immigration reform…just like Ronald Reagan did in 1989.”
Repeatedly throughout the interview, Newsom readily claimed fault for his mistakes — as with his dinner at the French Laundry restaurant amid statewide COVID closures — and his state’s ongoing homelessness and housing crisis.
“We have a $15.3 billion homeless plan — when I got here, it was half a billion dollars. The state of California was not involved in the homeless issue. We got involved, we’re holding cities and counties accountable,” Newsom said.
As the interview progressed, Newsom and Hannity engaged in more crosstalk, jockeying over one another to press their own points and counterpoints. That as most evident when Hannity brought up the topic of DeSantis, and Newsom’s suggestion that the Florida governor be brought up on potential kidnapping charges for his state program which flew migrants out of Florida and to a Sacramento church.
“Why do you use people as pawns? What faith tradition teaches you to treat human beings like this, to belittle them, to demean them,” Newsom chastised.
“If you’re a sanctuary state, why don’t you embrace them and say ‘thank you’ for sending them?” Hannity said.
“We embrace everybody here,” Newsom responded. “They were lied to, they were misled. They were told they had jobs, they were told they were going to get certain cour dates…they were dropped off, they knocked on the door and they left, and it was not coordinated.”
DeSantis, Newsom said, is “desperate to get into the action,” and said that former president Donald Trump will “clean his clock.”