Gavin Newsom Breaks With Biden to Set Up Presidential Run

Gavin Newsom is going full-speed ahead with his presidential bid — and he’s hardly being shy about it.

This week, he made a major, necessary move given the current environment: splitting from Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Newsom told Politico that he is “disappointed” with Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden. The carefully crafted quote read: “With everything the president and his family have been through, I completely understand the instinct to protect Hunter. But I took the president at his word. So by definition, I’m disappointed and can’t support the decision.”

Newsom’s disavowal of the president’s action begins to remedy the major mistake he made over the past year: siding with Biden over and over again, and vocally so, even as it became increasingly clear that Biden was not remotely up to the task of the presidency and had no prayer of being elected.

Even when other Democrats, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, were demanding behind closed doors that the president pull out of the race, Newsom was appearing on cable news show after cable news show to claim that the president was as sharp as ever.

Newsom took his defense of Biden so far that he embarked on a campaign tour of swing states to vouch for the president after the disastrous debate. At one Biden rescue mission in western Michigan, on the Fourth of July no less, Newsom said, “I’m all in, and not only that, I’m here with you to prove it.” In fact, Newsom’s efforts to support Biden even while powerful Democrats worked to force the president out were so all-encompassing and impactful that he single-handedly kept Joe Biden’s campaign on life support for over a month.

Newsom is running from this reality now that Biden’s desperate effort to remain in the race is being looked upon by Democrats as selfish, conceited, and foolish — a nearly evil endeavor that cost Democrats the presidency and handed it to “fascist” Donald Trump. For instance, Axios reported yesterday that Biden is “loathed by many Democrats who blame him for twin sins of selfishness: running again, then pardoning Hunter after repeatedly saying he wouldn’t.”

It’s not like Newsom wasn’t warned that linking himself to the Biden train would be damaging to his future ambitions. At another Biden rescue mission after the debate disaster, this time in Pennsylvania, Newsom was asked by a voter whether he was “damaging [his] credibility in the long run” by continuing to vouch for Biden.

Luckily for Newsom, his disavowal of the Hunter pardon comes across as a major break from Biden precisely because he has spent the past year being Biden’s most vocal defender.

***** 

Beyond breaking from the president, Newsom has been firing on all cylinders this week to position himself as the leader of the anti-Trump resistance, as he did during Trump’s first term.

On Monday, Newsom convened a special session of the California Legislature aimed directly at countering Trump via a $25 million litigation fund. In opening the special session, Newsom sought to treat the incoming president with a mixture of cautious openness and measured disagreement. Newsom said, “We will work with the incoming administration and we want President Trump to succeed in serving all Americans. But when there is overreach, when lives are threatened, when rights and freedoms are targeted, we will take action.”

By setting this tone for opposing the Trump administration, Newsom is seeking to position California as a bulwark against Trump without invoking Trump’s wrath to the extent that it jeopardizes federal support for state programs. In his first term, Newsom was accused of feuding with Trump in a way that put California priorities — such as the cross-state bullet train — at risk, even as it raised Newsom’s own national profile. Newsom still wants to be the leader of the anti-Trump resistance: He just wants to lose the destroy-Trump-at-all-costs mindset that caused Democrats to forget voter priorities and thus get pummeled in the 2024 election.

Compare Newsom’s new tone to the blunt opposition Newsom displayed toward Trump during their first terms. In Newsom’s first inaugural address in 2018, he said, “We will offer an alternative to the corruption and incompetence in the White House.” Upon taking office, Newsom immediately prioritized petty feuds with Trump. For example, one of Newsom’s first major actions as governor was to pull California National Guard troops from the southern border that Trump had asked former Gov. Jerry Brown to deploy. In doing so, Newsom stated, “The border ‘emergency’ is a manufactured crisis and California will not be part of this political theater.”

Since then, Newsom has politically smartened up in regard to the border crisis. He positions himself as favoring strong border enforcement and hopes people forget that he virtually supported open borders just a few years ago. (When Newsom pulled National Guard troops from the border in 2018, he portrayed it as a stand against “xenophobia”: “This is our answer to the White House: No more division, xenophobia or nativism.”)

This week, Newsom sought to capitalize on his newfound moderation on the border as well as his course-corrected focus on voters’ pocketbooks. On Thursday, he visited the U.S.-Mexico border to deliver a press conference on border security as well as how Trump’s proposed tariffs could result in financial hardship for Americans. His podium carried the mantra, “More jobs, lower costs. Stronger border.”

Newsom attacked Trump for his proposed 25 percent tax on imports from Canada and Mexico, saying that its impacts on Americans’ pocketbooks would be felt “universally,” and that this was a “betrayal” that should be “revealed to those that embraced and supported this agenda.” In a posture to his newfound focus on citizens’ priorities over attacking Trump for its own sake, Newsom added, “Forgive me, I didn’t want to make this too political.”

Newsom also pointed toward the accomplishments of California National Guard troops in their work on the southern border (Newsom redeployed them after the political winds shifted), and highlighted the expansion of a San Diego port of entry. He portrayed the expansion of the port of entry as a symbol of increased trade opportunities and improved border security and expressed hope that the Trump administration would “continue to support it, recognizing the economic imperative of doing so.”

***** 

This weekend, Newsom will take one more step toward solidifying his role as the leader of the opposition against Trump when he hosts the Democratic governors for their winter meeting and seeks to set the tone for the next four years. A spokesman for Newsom, Bob Salladay, told Politico that Newsom will repeat his message that a more measured approach to opposing Trump is necessary: “He’ll say what he’s been saying for weeks: We’re approaching the new administration with an open hand, not a closed fist.”

Newsom has a long way to go before 2028, but he is certainly wasting no time asserting his position as the preeminent Democratic governor, the leader of the Trump resistance movement, and the architect of Democrats’ post-election recalibration.

Ellie Gardey Holmes is the author of Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power.

READ MORE from Ellie Gardey Holmes:

How Democrats Learned to Hate Joe Biden

At MSNBC, Rising Tensions Fuel Fears of Collapse

Newsom Trades Sacramento for $9 Million Luxury Living

The post Gavin Newsom Breaks With Biden to Set Up Presidential Run appeared first on The American Spectator | USA News and Politics.