California Governor Gavin Newsom, showing on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, defended his largely behind-the-scenes position throughout the protracted actors and writers strike final yr, in addition to his resolution to tackle Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Maher, returning for his first present of 2024, began off by asking Newsom why he didn’t do some “jawboning” to attempt to resolve the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes so that they have been resolved earlier. Maher requested why Newsom didn’t simply go to either side and inform them, “You knuckleheads are going to find a number that you agree on at some point. It always happens, instead of putting these people out of work for all these months and all this suffering and heartache. Can we just get it done today?”
Newsom answered, “Well, we did all of that except the knucklehead part was expressed on multiple occasions, down here on many, many occasions.”
He stated that entailed “not only meeting with both sides, meeting with individuals, phone calls, text messages, emails, working behind the scenes, national groups, state groups. So it is all part of the art of the possible in the deal, in the context of not showing your cards and showing a bias upfront, so you can be constructive behind the scenes when both parties call you when you are needed.” He added that “sometimes you are more public, sometimes it is behind the scenes.”
Later, Maher talked of Newsom’s battle with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which performed out in November when the 2 state leaders debated one another on Fox News with Sean Hannity moderating.
Maher stated that he “didn’t want to live in a civil war” and advised Newsom, “You seem like you purposely want to set up this dichotomy between, ‘Oh, this is a blue state and that is a red state.’ And I don’t want to live in that. I like Florida.”
Newsom stated that he agreed with Maher — and likes Florida as properly — however stated that he was not going to “sit back and watch” folks making an attempt “to bring us back to a pre-1960s world. America in reverse. Rolling back voting rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights. Not just access to abortion but contraception.”
He added that “you can sit by and say, ‘Well, I really want to get along,’ as these guys are rolling back the clock, or you can stand tall and assert yourself. And the reason I started to go into those red states, the reason I started to take on DeSantis, and the reason I started doing ads in those red states, is I didn’t feel my party was doing enough. I was CRT one year, and then it is ESG, and then it’s DEI. Anything with three letters, and these guys keep coming….I just thought there was a little timidity in our party and I thought we needed to call this stuff out.”
Maher continued to speak up Newsom as a presidential prospect, however stated to him on the outset, “I’m not going to even go there.” Newsom has been requested repeatedly about operating for president, and has repeatedly stated that he’s working to re-elected Joe Biden. But that hasn’t stopped all types of untamed hypothesis that he would step in have been Biden to drop out of the race.