Gavin Newsom, the California governor who is seen as a likely 2028 presidential hopeful, is under fire from liberals and progressives for his friendly interview with Charlie Kirk, which featured Newsom agreeing with the MAGA provocateur on trans athlete bans and other culture war issues.
“Gavin Newsom is trash and always has been,” one Bluesky user noted about the Newsom-Kirk sitdown.
In the aftermath of Republicans taking control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, Newsom announced last month that he was launching a new podcast that would feature prominent Trump world figures for spirited discussions. The governor pointed to his high-profile appearances on Fox News, including a 2023 debate against Ron DeSantis moderated by Sean Hannity, as proof the project could work.
“We already know what our disagreements are with the MAGA movement. I want to understand what the motivations are, the legitimacy of those motivations, and just really understand where people are coming from,” he said about the launch of This Is Gavin Newsom. “They are influential — they are. They explain more things in more ways on more days about what’s going on and if we’re not trying to understand their motivations, we will be victims of their motivations.”
At the time, Newsom declined to reveal who his first few guests would be on the podcast, but hinted that they would be fairly well-known figures in Trump world. “I don’t want to lose these folks by letting their names out there,” he said, adding: “Look at the lineup at CPAC. It’s that crew.”
Ahead of the first episode of the podcast dropping on Thursday, Newsom posted a photo of him and Kirk — the founder of MAGA youth advocacy group Turning Point USA — standing together and smiling. The revelation that the governor had made the far-right activist and Trump acolyte his first podcast guest was enough to spark outrage among many on the left, even before the episode went live.
“‘The first guest on Gavin Newsom’s podcast was Charlie Kirk’ is more than enough for me to say ‘absolutely not’ to any suggestion Newsom play any role in the future of the Democratic Party,” attorney Max Kennerly wrote on Bluesky. “People like him are the past, the failures, the ones who got us here.”
“Sometimes you see something that makes you realize that another person’s mind is just always going to be a locked door to you, a total mystery,” games journalist Ian Boudreau stated. “Impenetrable. For me that was Gavin Newsom making his debut podcast episode a talk with Charlie Kirk.”
Center for International Policy chief editor Kelsey Atherton snarked that Newsom “would have put down the Bell Riots with tanks and napalm I can tell you that much,” referencing a 1995 Deep Space Nine episode about a fictional civil disturbance that took place in 2024 San Francisco.
The criticism of Newsom only escalated after his interview with Kirk aired. During the episode, the governor asked Kirk to give him “advice” for his party while also agreeing with the ultra-conservative activist that Democrats were in the wrong when it came to protecting trans athletes in sports.
“I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness — it’s deeply unfair,” Newsom, who has long touted his LGBTQ advocacy, declared. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
Additionally, after Newsom said that Republicans “were able to weaponize that issue at another level,” Kirk challenged him over the use of the term “weaponize,” prompting the governor to demur and change it to “highlight.” The exceedingly friendly chat with Kirk and his agreement on trans athletes and other hot-button social issues only drew more backlash from the left.
“If you want to understand the DNC’s relationship with trans people you have to ask yourself why Montana, Nebraska, and Oklahoma had openly trans legislators before California and New York (which still have never had any),” ACLU communications strategist Gillian Branstetter reacted.
“Who do Democrats think is the audience for ‘Gavin Newsom in a podcast with Charlie Kirk,’” former Washington Post reporter Christopher Ingraham wondered, while podcast host Andy Levy flatly said it was “utterly contemptible” how Newsom readily embraced Kirk’s viewpoints.
