Gov. Gavin Newsom got defensive on Monday during a stop on his book tour when confronted about his argument that Democrats should be more “culturally normal,” which a left-wing podcast host took issue with.
The governor sat down with podcast host Kara Swisher for a conversation about his book, “Young Man in a Hurry,” and was presented with a recorded question from an “outside expert,” a segment Swisher includes in her podcasts.
The question was from another podcast host, far-left personality Jennifer Welch, who hosts the “I’ve Had It” podcast, who brought up the governor’s remarks to CNN’s Dana Bash last month that Democrats should be more “culturally normal” on issues like transgender athletes in women’s sports if they want to win voters.
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“You recently said that Democrats need to be more culturally normal,” Welch said Monday. “And Governor, I think that’s a very dangerous statement because me, a very mouthy woman in a Bible-belt state, if I were culturally normal here, I would have to submit to my husband and I wouldn’t be able to have a podcast wherein I could critique every little thing you say.”
“Governor Newsom, do you think this is dangerous language for you to use to an electorate that should be embracing diversity across the board? Diversity should be normal,” she said.
The governor responded, “Well, I mean, diversity should be normal. I mean, who’s been the biggest champion of diversity.”
“Hold on. No, but that, so, I just don’t accept the frame of the question,” Newsom continued. “But let me answer the question. I don’t accept that frame at all.”
“Diversity — that’s our greatest strength,” Newsom said. “We don’t tolerate our diversity, we celebrate our diversity. We live in the most diverse state in the world’s most diverse democracy. Twenty-seven percent in this state are foreign-born. We practice pluralism. That’s a point of pride. That’s a core value. She should know that.”
The governor then argued that Democrats needed to understand where they went wrong in order to gain back power in the House, Senate and eventually, the White House.
The governor described the process of fighting back and putting a “mirror” up to President Donald Trump and “Trumpism.”
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“And part of me at first was like, do we really want to do this?” Newsom said. “But we need to do it. We need to put that mirror up to Trump and Trumpism. Because none of this is normal, and my whole point is this, we will lose our country. We will lose our republic,” he said.
“This guy is not screwing around, the most corrupt president in American history,” he continued. “And we will lose our country if we don’t fight back and push back. So, yes, I cringe sometimes at my social media as well, right? But I think it’s important in this environment that we call out the that we’re seeing 24-7.”
Newsom said “culturally normal” didn’t mean right or wrong, but rather how people feel about certain issues, and said taking that into account when it comes to elections wasn’t unfair.
“It’s what you, what you emphasize, what you disproportionately focus on and how you navigate a world where they’re again trying to shape shift, and we are on the defense,” he added. “Again, that’s why I went on the offense as it relates to the banning and the cultural purge that the right wing is doing. And that’s why we are iterating in that respect.”
During the conversation with CNN’s Bash in February, Newsom framed his argument from a “tactical perspective,” saying, “from the prism of purely politics, there’s no doubt that the Democratic Party needs to be, dare I say, more culturally normal.”
“I believe that — less prone to spending a disproportionate amount of time on pronouns, identity, politics, more focused on tabletop issues, things that really matter, the stacking of stress in terms of electricity bills and childcare costs and healthcare, and obviously, housing costs and how easily we get trapped in that, how I’ve fallen prey to that,” he said.
Welch responded to Newsom’s remarks during her podcast as well and said the governor was ceding ground to Republicans.
“What you’re saying, Gov. Newsom, is breathtakingly dangerous,” Welch said. “And you’re ceding ground to the narratives that Republicans try to define free people that mind their own business that stand up for everything. You’re allowing their bulls— narratives to define Americans, and it is utterly disgraceful.”
