Longtime journalist Katie Couric asked if Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., had a problem with being “ridiculously good-looking.”
During an interview on Couric’s “Next Question” podcast released Thursday, the former “Today” co-host remarked on how Newsom has been described as “slick” and whether that was a reference to his hairstyle. Newsom acknowledged that the comments had caused him to play into a “character.”
“Do you have a ‘Zoolander’ problem?” Couric asked, referencing the 2001 Ben Stiller comedy.
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After Newsom began laughing at the comment, she followed, “Are you just ridiculously good-looking, as Vogue said? No, seriously. What do you do about that?”
“You don’t do anything about it. ‘Cuz if you’re going to do something about it, then you’re bulls—-ing people. You know what? I am who I am. And it’s fine. You don’t have to like me. Or maybe you like a slick person. I don’t know. Whatever. It’s okay,” Newsom said.
NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham mocked the question as unworthy of a journalist.
“This kind of question could be seen as the kind of question a flighty influencer would act, and not some world-class journalist,” he told Fox News Digital. “It comes across as highly flattering, like his looks are a great problem to have. However, his slickness can be a problem. He could come across as smarmy and pompous. Couric was probably hoping these kinds of questions would promote him, as well as it would promote her show.”
Both Newsom and Couric were mocked on social media for the exchange.
“He can’t run for President on his record, so they are attempting to fabricate charisma,” conservative commentator Stephen L. Miller wrote.
Republican communicator Matt Whitlock commented, “Gavin has a serious Beto problem in that the media infatuation with him doesn’t match the record or actual political viability.”
“This reminds me of when Chris Cillizza posted on Twitter, ‘Let me say for the billionth time: Reporters don’t root for a side. Period.’ Absolutely nailed it,” Outkick writer Ian Miller remarked.
New York Post columnist Kirsten Fleming joked, “His walk out song at the DNC is going to be ‘I’m too sexy.'”
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Couric’s comments resembled a Vogue magazine profile piece on Newsom, a 2028 presidential contender, that described the governor as “embarrassingly handsome” last month.
“Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address,” the opening line read.
The magazine was similarly mocked across social media.
