(LifeSiteNews) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom is one of America’s most talented politicians. He is also a sinister shape-shifter willing to wear the guise of the “moderate” like a skinsuit in order to obtain the power he desperately craves. In the inaugural episode of his new podcast, unironically titled “This is Gavin Newsom,” he sat down with conservative activist Charlie Kirk — and to the outrage of LGBT activists, appeared to agree with Kirk’s argument against permitting trans-identifying men in women’s sports.
Conservatives should be watching Newsom’s alleged “pivot” very, very closely.
The Democrat Party is still in utter disarray and deeply divided over how to respond to the unpopularity of their positions on transgender ideology (among others). Newsom is smooth, Machiavellian, and a brilliant political operator, and he is attempting to thread the needle, presenting himself as compassionate and reasonable to voters fed up with the more extreme manifestations of transgender ideology while ensuring that when it comes to policy, the LGBT movement gets everything they ask for.
It is no accident that Newsom chose Kirk, a conservative star who is close to the Trumps, for his first in-person interview. Newsom wants access to Kirk’s audience, and he wants that audience to see him as reasonable — at least more reasonable than other Democrats. Thus, the California governor was downright chummy with Kirk and repeatedly ceded the point on trans-identifying athletes in women’s sports after Kirk brought up the example of a trans-identifying male who recently won a female track meet.
“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,” he said. “I’m not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you … I revere sports. And so the issue of fairness is completely legit. There’s also a humility and a grace, that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression. So both things I can hold in my hand. How can we address this issue with the kind of decency that I think is inherent in you but not always expressed on the issue, but at the same time deal with the unfairness?”
He added that his wife and daughters, his own experience playing baseball, and comments from unnamed friends have made him think twice about the issue of fairness in sports.
Newsom also mentioned that a 2013 California state law that made it mandatory to permit students to use the facilities and participate in the sports teams that aligned with their “gender identity,” and notably did not propose changing that law based on the “unfairness” he allegedly recognized. In short, Female athletes get Gavin Newsom’s compassion. Trans-identifying athletes get his support, and his policies. See what he did there?
LGBT activists certainly didn’t. “In this moment of crisis, they need leaders who will unequivocally fight for them,” Tony Hoang, executive director of Equality California, a leading LGBTQ+ advocacy group, said. “Instead of standing strong, the Governor has added to the heartbreak and fear caused by the relentless barrage of hate from the Trump Administration.” Indeed, Newsom’s comments made him seem out of step with Senate Democrats, who blocked a federal bill that would have banned trans-identifying athletes from competing on women’s sports teams earlier this month.
But Newsom’s longstanding record is essential context here. Newsom has been a political pioneer when it comes to spearheading the LGBT agenda, and his commitment to that agenda extends back to his earliest days in politics. I remember well when Newsom gained his national profile as mayor of San Francisco by illegally marrying same-sex couples in 2004, and his record since then has been similarly uncompromising, including legislation making California a so-called “sanctuary state” for trans-identifying minors and championing sex changes and other transgender “treatments” for children.
California Republicans, who are used to dealing with their reptilian governor, have not been fooled. “It’s all empty rhetoric,” Corona GOP Assemblyman Bill Essayli, who is currently attempting to roll back the state’s 2013 law, stated in an interview. “It’s just political posturing and pandering, and I think that’s what the governor does best.” Essayli is clearly right — if Newsom actually believed that the issue of trans-identifying athletes in female sports competitions was one of “fairness,” he could act on it. He won’t.
I’ve long believed that Newsom is the most dangerous high-profile Democrat in the country. He understands what most Democrats do not: that using the cutthroat rhetoric of the progressive fringe is a recipe for political disaster. Despite that, Newsom himself is progressive to the core — but he knows how to sell himself as a “centrist,” peppering his interviews and speeches with references to Ronald Reagan and insisting that he is simply trying to bridge the divide between Left and Right and find compromises everyone can live with.
As many media outlets have already despairingly observed, the Democrat bench heading into the 2028 election is staggeringly sparse. Newsom has both immense political talent and presidential aspirations, and there is a very good chance that he will be the Democratic nominee. His podcast should be called “This is the New Gavin Newsom,” and we should be watching it very closely.
