Barack Obama‘s former political guru gave California Governor Gavin Newsom some blunt advice after he received backlash from an appearance on a conservative podcast.
Newsom, 57, sat down with right-wing influencer, Charlie Kirk, for the first episode of his new podcast This is Gavin Newsom, which was released on Thursday.
During the 90-minute chat, the Democratic governor declared transgender athletes participating in women’s sports was ‘deeply unfair’ – breaking away from the traditional liberal standpoint on the issue.
Like many people, strategist David Axelrod saw this shift as politically motivated and a clear attempt by Newsom to gain more of a footing with conservative voters.
‘If I was giving the governor advice, I’d say: “Don’t be so overt that people can see the wheels turning.”‘
‘When did you have this epiphany?’ Axelrod also asked while he was a panelist on CNN‘s Source with Kaitlain Collins. ‘And the answer is when he found that Republicans could weaponize the issue.’
The former advisor to Obama believed Newsom was using the episode as a way to ‘stake out that territory on that issue.’
‘And let’s be honest, this isn’t a new tactic,’ he criticized. ‘It was clear what he was doing, he just didn’t do it very artfully.’
A strategist who helped Barack Obama gave California Governor Gavin Newsom some blunt advice after he received backlash from his new podcast. He advised him to keep his opinions closer to his chest, saying: ‘Don’t be so overt that people can see the wheels turning.’
Newsom, 57, sat down with right-wing influencer, Charlie Kirk, for the first episode of his new podcast
Karen Finney, who was a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton, called Newsom’s move a ‘gimmick.’
‘The thirstiness is dripping off him,’ she told CNN. ‘Just stop it, it’s gross… Why are you sitting with Charlie Kirk and taking potshots at the VP [Kamala Harris]?’
During the interview, Kirk asked Newsom: ‘Would you say no men in female sports?’
Newsom replied: ‘Well, 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.
Kirk challenged him to call out the case of AB Hernandez, a high school trans athlete dominating women’s long jump and triple jump in California.
Newsom avoided that case but said he agreed with Kirk’s overall stance that it was unfair for women to compete with an athlete born a man.
But he went on to say that it was important to ensure that vulnerable communities were protected.
‘There’s also humility and grace…that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression, and the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with as well,’ he said.
During the 1.5-hour chat, the Democratic governor declared transgender athletes participating in women’s sports was ‘deeply unfair’ – breaking away from the traditional liberal standpoint on the issue
Karen Finney, who was a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton, called Newsom’s move a ‘gimmick.’ She said: ‘The thirstiness is dripping off him’
‘So both things I can hold in my hand. How can we address this issue with the kind of decency that I think, you know, is inherent in you, but not always expressed on the issue?’
Newsom is widely expected to run for president in 2028. And he has shown a willingness to engage with conservatives and appear on Fox News as he dissects the wreckage of the Democrats’ 2024 election campaign.
In the first episode of Kirk’s podcast, he admitted that Democrats simply could not compete with the reach of Trump and Elon Musk right now.
‘We’re toast,’ he said.
His new show is designed to bring him together with people on the opposing side. And he promised to interview architects of the MAGA movement.
Axelrod also revealed in a separate CNN interview the ‘very odd’ moment Vice President JD Vance contradicted the president during Trump’s Zelensky meltdown that no one seemed to clock.
He pointed out that during yesterday’s heated Oval Office showdown, Vance said Russia invaded Ukraine – with Axelrod admitting: ‘That’s something that the president won’t say.’
In an interview with CNN, Alexrod let out a large sigh before he revealed the sound bite that ‘caught his ear’ and said it marked a rare time that Vance publicly spoke against the president.
Axelrod was a strategist for Barack Obama (pictured in 2012)
‘He was trying to make a point that Ukraine had a lot at stake in trying to end the war, but in making the point, he actually contradicted the president who refuses to say that same,’ he said.
‘The one thing I think people have missed that kind of caught my ear,’ he told CNN’s Dana Bash. ‘[It] was [how] Vance began by saying that Russia had invaded Ukraine and destroyed much of the country, that’s something that the President of the United States won’t say.’
Obama’s former advisor went on to label Vance the ‘provocateur’ of the day.
Axelrod also said Vance went against ‘the spirit’ of the United Nations vote earlier this week in which the US sided with authoritarian regimes – which included Russia, North Korea, Belarus and Hungary – by opposing a UN resolution condemning Russian aggression against Ukraine.
‘So that was very odd to me,’ he added, and said the peace talks ‘got very nasty very fast.’
