Transcript of Gov. Newsom on Big Wins in CA and Taking on Trump

I'm joined by California Governor Gavin Newsom. Governor, great to be here with you. You know, Donald Trump likes to claim that he's this great dealmaker and I negotiate this, that, and the other. And it seems like he's never negotiated a deal in his life and that he's a dealbreaker. And we're just seeing across the board, whether it's foreign policy or domestic, he loves breaking things, but he can't build anything.

Yeah, I mean, I think it's such an opportunity for the Democratic brand to be builders. If there's one, word that I think we would do well being associated with. It's this notion of building, not just rebuilding, but building, and a liberalism that builds literally and figuratively, builds alliances, builds community, builds understanding and empathy, collaboration, but also builds bridges and roads and broadband and builds housing, which at the core is the issue I continue to say explains more things in more ways on more days around the struggle working families are dealing with. Not just in California, but across the country.

Governor Donald Trump called the housing affordability bill the big yawn. He said that on Monday. He described it as, who even cares about this housing affordability thing? And so the guy who was out there promising lower prices, affordable housing, you know, when you are able to bring all of his frauds to its logical conclusion and you call his bluff, you're really able to see that it's all just one massive con.

Yeah, it's interesting. You know, he said that 24 hours after I signed legislation We put an $11 billion housing bond package to the voters just literally months after we signed some of the most progressive zoning laws and permitting reforms in America. And I actually, no BS, I reached out in a bipartisan way because this was a bipartisan bill to some of the authors congratulating them. Hours, literally, I'm not making this up, literally hours before the quote unquote press conference where President Trump was going to sign the bill, I just had assumed that he was going to land the plane and try to take credit for this. Only Donald Trump can screw this up. Finally, he could point to a modicum of progress on, again, foundational issue of our time as it relates to the affordability crisis, and that's the cost of housing and related issues. And only Donald Trump could screw it up. And I guess honestly, like, no BS, it's because it wasn't quote unquote his. It's not because he can't lay claim to getting any credit. And I just— I've got to assume that's the only reason that he considers it, as you suggest, said the other day, that it's a quote unquote yawn.

Yeah.

And more than a modicum of progress in California. Big news earlier today, some of the new statistics released, like the lowest crime in generations and generations. Talk to us about what a big deal this announcement was for those who haven't heard it.

You know, I think it was— I'm really proud of these, the data that just came out. I mean, the lowest homicides in recorded history in California. Time for updated talking points on all of those with California Derangement Syndrome. The lowest homicide rate since 1966, maybe much lower than prior to '66. It's just the modern data collection was 1966. Violent crime last year down another 10.2% in every category, property crimes, robberies, et cetera, below pre-19— 2019 levels and double-digit decreases in 2025. And by the way, paint a picture in some of the other states in a moment. But it was a few years ago, I think I showed up in with you and I talked about the fact, and it wasn't particularly popular, that I went on Truth Social, that I opened the first account I think any Democratic governor had opened on Truth Social. And people said, well, they were a little offended. Why are you doing that? I said, because I was so frustrated on this narrative around crime and violence, that the Democratic Party was losing it to a party that consistently was failing on this issue. Not rhetorically, not perception, but in reality.

8 of the top 10 murder states— that was my first post on Truth Social— was 8 out of the top 10 murder states in America are from red states. And I asked a simple question: what are the policies leading to such carnage? And the right wing went crazy. Fox went crazy. But no one could deny the facts. And the fact remains, in most of these blue states, across the spectrum of issues, not just on the issues of crime and violence, we outperform these red states, but we don't in terms of public opinion. And so I appreciate the opportunity to come back and highlight California's receipts on this across the spectrum. But I also want to make the case that the Democratic Party, all of us, have a role and responsibility to socialize not just what's happening in California, but across the nation, and point out the fact that states like Texas have significantly higher homicide rates than California, property crime rates that are higher than the state of California. I was just looking at the numbers that came out today from the FBI in Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee. Tennessee has 24% higher, uh, rates of homicides in the state of California.

Why? We are not focusing on that as they're focusing on us is an issue that has to be addressed in our party.

Well, you know, the reason you've been able to bring crime down, though, is if you watch, you've been actually doing things like end policies. And doing things isn't easy. And sometimes it's complicated to explain. It's really easy to just do tough guy talk, but then you eventually got to pay your bills and the rhetoric has to match what's happening. And so much with Trump and MAGA is you have this tough guy talk. We obliterated and destroyed and that gets pumped out through a trillion-dollar propaganda machine. But then the reality looks very, very different. And then it seems they're able to exploit the fact that actually doing and solving is complicated and requires compromise and experts. And that's a— that, that's what we're dealing with. To me, that kind of sums it all up sometimes.

I couldn't agree with you more. And, you know, we've seen our crime rates plummet as I've closed 5 state prisons. No other governor in history can lay claim to that. We've closed 5 prisons. We converted San Quentin to a rehabilitation center. I shut down death row. No exist anymore at San Quentin. Hundreds of millions of dollars invested in the California model as we're reimagining reentry. We're reimagining the custodial system in the state of California. We put $1.1 billion into grants to build partnerships back to the hard work and grind over the course of many, many years with our local law enforcement agencies and DAs and sheriffs. We built partnerships with local law enforcement agency, with the California Highway Patrol. I added 1,000 new officers to the CHP, and we worked in partnership with the community and local police to do crime suppression strategies, preemptive strategies. Again, the hard work, both and, not either or, not the old binary as it relates to crime and violence. And yeah, it's hard work investing in victim services, investing in the community, investing in the drivers of crime, the issues around ignorance, poverty, and disease, the hard work that needs to be done to have a sustainable framework, not just about the high profile.

We're going to send in the National Guard in D.C. and lay claim to taking credit for a trend that already existed before the National Guard arrived in D.C., and that was crime was starting to decline. And so again, it's all part of the narrative, and this is what we're up against. This weaponization of grievance, the surround sound on the other side. Uh, and so it's hard work, and I guess I'm grateful for you to be able to share these numbers. I think there are a number of other Democratic governors that also can lay claim to some pretty good numbers, uh, but the mythology is still out there. And so we have to be more aggressive. We've got to fight, uh, much more aggressively to get this information out there, to get the facts out there, uh, and straighten up the bullshit, with all due respect. Sorry about the language coming from the right wing, right?

Because you list specific policies. Here's how we go about doing it. Here's how we address it. And they go, uh, he said custodial. Uh, that starts with the letter C. Custodial communism partnering with the criminals. And then you see it on Fox. Boom, the fire hose. There it is. We are partners with the partnership. This is a California criminal It's, it's very like what I just did. It's the easiest thing to do because it's what 3-year-olds— no offense to 3-year-olds who are whatever— behave. And like, I think what you've seen and what you've been fighting back is you're saying we can do both. We have to be policymakers and do shit. Excuse my language. And then you have to fight back against that at the same time.

Yeah. Look, and it goes to the whole core. What is the Democratic Party? What are we supposed to represent? This is what we're supposed to represent. It's the day job. It's the how business, doing the hard work. Yeah, it's the politics. Sure, that's important. The tonality, that's important. You got to deliver. And this is about delivering real results, real outcomes. And so again, when we have the receipts, it gets a little more difficult for the other side. Then again, perception becomes reality. And if we are not with the kind of surround sound and intensity communicating the success— I was with all these, and one of the most interesting meetings I've had in quite some time was down in Long Beach a couple weeks ago at the US Conference of Mayors. And I met with quite literally, I did 3 large breakouts with dozens and dozens of mayors all across the United States. And they were telling me all these incredible stories. And I'm like, why the hell don't I read about these things? And they made the point, it wasn't a knock. They said, you know, there's more than just 2 mayors in the country, 2 East Coast mayors.

There's mayors all across the country delivering real results, a lot of them in red states, blue cities, delivering real results and winning elections with 70, 80% of the vote. And those are the stories we need to tell, those policies that they're implementing, their application of ideals and the practical solutions they're bringing to bear. This is the pathway of consciousness. It's also a pathway of understanding, of getting back not only Congress, about getting back to the White House in 2028. And I think really we've got to do a better job bottom up, not just top down, and really start to showcase— forget guys like me— some of the incredible leaders, young leaders all across this country, Democrats that every day pragmatically are showing up and delivering real results with policy that deserves to be highlighted and certainly deserves to be celebrated.

And then finally, you know, perception, very important. When we see Donald Trump's behavior lately, and you have been unafraid to call it out, I mean, the cognitive and physical decline seems to just be rapidly accelerating to levels I don't think we've ever even seen, could even fathom where it's at right now. Talk to us about what you're observing and how, if you feel it's a national danger.

Well, come on, man. Look, I'm on the receiving end. I had to socialize something that I've been dealing with for an extended period of time, and that's not just the weaponization of grievance as it relates to the surround sound of Fox and the Daily Mail and this rag called the California Post and New York Post and all the BS that goes and gets platformed, but also the weaponization of the Department of Justice. The weaponization of Donald Trump that many other people have experienced, including my friend Governor Waltz. And by the way, if you haven't read, the judge threw out the criminal case against Governor Waltz, and it's worth taking a read because it was so outlandish, so outrageous what the Trump administration tried to do to take him out and down. But he got all the headlines he wanted. Up front, and few people know that that case was thrown out on the back end. And that's what Trump is all about. And so this is just— he's— we've talked about this, we talked about in the context of Prop 50, we talk about it every single week, you talk about it every single hour of every single day.

This guy's still winding up. And we saw the Supreme Court today, some decisions were kind of mixed, particularly on the vote by mail, which, you know, earlier this week that was critical in terms of, of of protecting and preserving our republic and our democracy. But again, vigilance doesn't even begin to describe what our posture needs to be over the course of the next few months, because as you suggest, across the spectrum, this guy is failing and increasingly flailing. And it's self-evident that decline from a physical and emotional and so cognizant perspective But the power that he continues to wield is real. And we have to, again, I think, be absolutely mindful that the worst is yet to come, that this is just the beginning.

Optimism, though, before ending on the worst is yet to come, optimism.

Yeah, man. Well, just fight fire with fire. The way back is through the fight. I think you're seeing it reflected in a lot of the elections. It's not through the center necessarily, it's through the fight. Clarity, conviction, fight for working folks, working families, real solutions to real problems. How do you help me? Can you help me raise my wages? How do you lower my costs? How can you address the issue to create conditions where I feel safe and I have a sense of community? And all those things are connected. Democratize our economy at the same time we try to preserve our democracy. It's the same fight. And if we start to sort of organize that narrative and that consciousness and that thinking, that energy and daring that we're seeing from not just candidates but from leaders that are unsung heroes in this fight, that again, I hope we can start elevating, particularly these mayors all across this country, we're going to be fine. And one thing in closing, you know, The evidence is in, man. People are showing up and we continue to, you know, this party continues to outperform at the state level. And that's where the action is.

Assembly races, state Senate races, we are crushing it. And that's what gives me absolute optimism about what happens this November. But again, it's about continuing to focus on what's right, not being ashamed of celebrating success, and continuing to call out the bullshit coming from the right.

California Governor Gavin Newsom, thanks for joining us. Thanks for sharing those statistics and thanks for making those statistics the reality that we see here in California. Appreciate it.

I appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

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