Gavin Newsom on Running for President, Trolling Trump & Governing California (Full Interview)

Joining us now is the governor of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Welcome to the story is the story is the story is your first show I'm honored to be here first guest first show new digs. Let's screw it up These are by the way, this is next-level impressive your heart out East Coast Yeah, what is the value of a West Coast based show? Come on that we exist Not just persist. I mean there is I is, I don't want to get in trouble here,

but there tends to be a little bit of bias at times.

A lot of bias.

All right, thank you.

And so it's nice to try to rebalance that, particularly in a state where the future is happening first. And I say that with a point of pride, it's pretty obvious in AI and quantum and fusion and so many different areas, but no, I think it's fabulous and congratulations. Thank you very much. So, let's start with what I'm sure is going to be your favorite question.

So the other day I was talking with former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. I asked him this question this way. You're thinking about running for president, right?

I mean, is that fair to say you're thinking about it? I mean, I'm a long way from any kind of decision, but obviously it's not like it hasn't come

up.

Okay.

So, question to you. You're thinking about running for president, right? No, I mean, it's come up. Quite a lot. No, no. I mean, people, people talk about it and you'd be lying if it hasn't, you haven't thought

about it or processed it. But that said, quite literally, I'm making the case, that's why I have this initiative, Prop 50, there may not be a 2028 election that's fee-free and fair. So my focus is central to getting over the hump in November 4th of this year, and then working on 2026 in the midterm re-elections. But look, when people,

particularly people that have run before, etc. Everybody knows the politician, the response, the kabuki. Well, I'm just focusing on my day job and we'll see where things go. So I tried to be a little more honest about it and people ran with it over. But to that point, for many years,

you've said to me and several other people that you had sub-zero interest in running. And that, how many ways can I say no? So has something changed? Yeah, everything's changed. Everything changed here in LA. You were part of it. You saw it with the federalization of the National Guard.

I just think we're on the other side of something radically different, not marginally different. Everything has changed in terms of my mindset, my focus, my energy, my perspective on the world we're living in, Trump and Trumpism, what he represents, and how serious and precious this moment is. So, no, from that perspective, legitimately, I've changed, this country's changing, and I'm calling it out, and I just feel like we have a responsibility

to be a little bit more clear and concise and precise in terms of our efforts. So what is the thought process in terms of thinking about the presidential run, and why would you potentially not run? Because it's literally, truly, that's so, it is now, now I'm getting into the frame

where sincerely I haven't thought about it beyond just a few people bringing things up and talking about the future of this country. Look, my focus is on the essential nature of calling out what Trump is doing in real time, the shock and awe and how it's become more and more normalized and socialized, things that are complete deviancies from normalcy. They have to be called out with some firmness

and much more aggressiveness. And so look, that's my contribution to the moment to the extent that contribution adds value to that conversation. That's for another time. But right now, my focus is on the time I have

between now and November 4th in winning Proposition 15. So past the midterms before you even figure out

the other stuff.

Yeah, no, I mean, I don't even, the whole idea is so absurd to me in so many different respects, because this is not, it was never on my bingo card. I didn't grow up saying, one day I'll be this person.

It's not a photo on the wall of me meeting someone. You were that way back in the day. Yeah, I think there's, well, that's a whole deeper conversation of perception versus reality and I have a lot of work to do on that and I'm going to be doing a little more of that with this book and now it sounds like, oh, here, he's got a book, of course he's running. But truly, I've got a book that I'm putting out the perspective, the perception of me versus the reality of what I experienced growing up and in my own childhood and my own experiences. So I'm trying to shape shift that from my perspective, not everyone else's.

What's the biggest misconception about you? I just think this notion, this, I think, I don't know where, you know, I know where it comes from, but I think this notion of the silver spoon, I was born into great wealth and privilege and it's quite the contrary. And I'm not trying to, it's not a racial alger story. I'm not trying to over romanticize the, you know, a contra narrative, but it's remarkable

how that perception has dominated so much of the conversation that even my friends have about me. They don't know much about me. And so just for the record, setting it straight for my kids and grandkids I'm gonna be pushing back in that respect. I mean you spent most of your childhood with a single mother

Yeah, who was you know struggled economically had foster family Yeah, you it was a different experience than the way a lot of people think about you and you know My mom was was 1920 when she was pregnant with me a few years later She was separated with two kids. And she just hustled to make ends meet. She had two, three jobs all her life.

And it was just hard work and grit. And I was proud of that. My dad was struggling for those early years. He was sort of broken, he said, and broke. He attempted to run for elected office. It was one of the reasons my mom never wanted to see me sitting here with you as governor of California

or even as former mayor of San Francisco. She never wanted that path that my father went on to be my path because it had broken him in many respects. So I'm sober about all of this in the context of the humility and grace that I'm sitting here, that we're here, the contributions she made,

the sacrifices she made for me. I lost her almost 20 plus years ago to breast cancer. I lost my father as well, and I'm proud of them both. But again, that story isn't necessarily present. May not be a story anyone gives a damn about, but it's important to me, and as I said, I got four kids, I hope it's important to them.

And oftentimes people will release books like that before a presidential run. No, I know, but yeah. presidential run. The timing, literally it's been delayed for years. So I'll never win that argument. No one will believe me, but that's the truth. Let's talk about what's happening now. This is the first TV interview you've done since the Department of Justice announced

that they're going to be sending election monitors into California to monitor what's happening with the Prop 50 election. It's a statewide election, not a federal election. Why do you think they're doing that? Well, I mean, it's a pattern in practice. They're doing it as part of an intimidation strategy.

They're trying to suppress the vote. They're trying to chill the freedom of speech. We've seen that with this private police force, these increasing encroachment in terms of our civil liberties, no due process, people with masks jumping out of unmarked cars. We're seeing that in terms of the federalization, the militarization of American cities with troops.

It is part of practice from this administration. They have no business being here. They have no basis being here for exactly the reasons you framed. It's a statewide election for a statewide constitutional amendment.

And so there's no pattern of practice in the past of violations of the Voting Rights Act. And all of a sudden now, they seem to be champions So there's no pattern of practice in the past of violations of the Voting Rights Act. And all of a sudden now they seem to be champions of the Voting Rights Act. Quite curiously in some of the most diverse districts

in this state at a particular curious and important time in American history, not just California history. Obviously 2024 was a federal election, but the Biden administration said DOJ monitors to 87 different jurisdictions in that election.

The California GOP put up this onto X saying, Governor, if there's nothing to hide or nothing wrong, why the concern in having the DOJ observe? What's wrong with transparency? Let's transparency, let's have the transparency what went in to their request,

allegedly of the Department of Justice, the state GOP, and why they picked these particular five counties, and what allegations or what assertions and on what basis of fact are they asserting that there's been violations in the past? Why these counties? Why now?

Why a statewide election? Very different than other federal elections or elections with candidates on the ballot. This is, again, a proposition. Good people can disagree. They'll be accommodated as everyone

should be accommodated. They'll have determinations at the county level with the registrars to the extent they want to cooperate. That's up to them. I'm just arguing for people to keep their eyes wide open at what's going on in the United States of America.

I said this months and months ago. What's happening in LA, what's happened in California is a preview of things to come. Period. Full stop. It's exactly what we said was going to happen. It's happening in places like DC.

It's obviously happened in Portland and Chicago. It's going to be happening in other cities as it relates to the federalization of the Guard. I said the same thing when we kicked off the Prop 50 campaign at the Democracy Center, when masked men, and this guy Bovino, the great Gregory Bovino, came out, arrested a poor soul, was collateral damage because he tried to chill free speech and expression,

as it relates to our campaign kickoff, that that's a preview of things to come in polling booths and voting places across this country. And watch this space with the DOJ. This is all teen up 2026. Donald Trump does not believe in fair and free elections.

He's trying to rig the 2026 election in plain and open sight, and that is obvious to anyone that's paying attention, and he's just winding up. So let's talk about Prop 50, because that is a lot of what you're thinking about here. So background for Prop 50 that people haven't been paying that close attention to this. President Trump says to the governor of Texas that he would like to have five Republican seats in Texas. They redraw the

congressional map there. California Democrats say if you're going to do that we should redraw our map to have five Democratic seats here. There's now a proposition to get rid of Independent Redistricting Commission until 2031 in order to create a new map that will probably help the Democrats. There are some people that say, two wrongs don't make a right.

Why are they wrong? Well, look, let's go back. What you said was perfectly accurate, but you missed one key distinction. Donald Trump said he quote quote unquote, was entitled. That's just trying to chill everyone watching,

Democrats, Republicans. He said he was entitled to five seats. That's exactly what Greg Abbott and the legislature did in Texas. They didn't stop there. They're in Missouri.

They're now moving in Indiana with a special session. They just redistricted in North Carolina. And obviously, Ron DeSantis is going to get into this. These guys are not screwing around. They're ruthless. They're trying to rig the election before one vote is

cast.

What they expected us to do was cast aspersions, maybe write an op-ed, maybe have a candlelight vigil, walk the streets, talk about the way the world should be, maybe try to win the argument as their consolidating power. They did not expect us to come up with a strategy to counterbalance things so that we can rebalance and have a chance, have this country have a chance

of holding our Republican democracy so we can actually celebrate the 250th anniversary as opposed to tearing down these enduring values of our founding fathers. So our approach is, yeah, fight fire with fire. It's not one hand tied behind our back.

It's not about winning an argument. It's about recognizing the other side is not screwing around, no norms. They're at open, plain sight, doing everything they can to wreck this republic and our democracy.

It started with January 6th. He tried to light democracy on fire. He tried to wreck this republic and our democracy. It started with January 6th. He tried to light democracy on fire. He tried to wreck this country. He dialed for 11, 12,000 seats in with the secretary of state in Georgia. And now he's doing something unprecedented in American history, calling governors to rig the midterm maps. Wake up. So the leading opponent of Proposition 50 in terms terms of name recognition, is Arnold Schwarzenegger,

the former governor who was one of the champions of independent redistricting. I talked to him last week about you and about this fight.

Here's some of what he had to say. If you're a California Democrat and you want this to be fair, what are you supposed to do? What's the alternative to Prop 50? If I would be a Democrat, I would say to be fair. What are you supposed to do? What's the alternative to Prop 50?

If I would be a Democrat, I would say outperform Trump. You don't out-cheat Trump, but outperform Trump.

What's your question to Governor Newsom?

Look, as you know, I make sure not to make it personal. So I will never say anything about Governor Newsom. I told him that I totally understand where he's coming from because he wants to run for president. He wants to show that the Democratic Party, I can be your savior.

So I understand all that where he's coming from. He doesn't care about all of this, about keeping the commission and all this stuff. By the way, when the politicians say, well, the politicians say this is temporary.

Remember the longest program is a government program that is temporary.

So to that point,

the statute says that this ends in 2030. Period, full stop. But the sort of de facto, though, is the Democrats get into these seats. They're comfortable in these seats. They like the power.

Texas Republicans get into their seats. They like it. So why would it go back?

Well, they won't have my support.

This is temporary. It's transparent, and it's Democratic. It's the first maps that have ever been put in front of the voters, and that's important. But I also want to put this in front of your viewers. What Arnold Schwarzenegger said was not true. He's a friend. This is not personal.

What he said was not true. I absolutely affirm and support redistricting. In fact, this initiative also does just that, national redistricting, not going into these fights that have national implications, state by state, with one arm tied behind the back. And by the way, I have receipts on that. I was mayor of San Francisco, one of the only Democrats that came out

in opposition of the repeal of our Independent Redistricting Commission. This keeps the Independent Redistricting Commission for statewide races, Senate assembly races, the Board of Equalization. It just changes it temporarily in response

to this unprecedented assault on the rules of the game. And with due respect to the former governor, he should understand rules of the game. You can't enter into a contest when the other side doesn't play by any set of rules. That's not a fair game. That's rigged. In any fair game, we're going to win.

Donald Trump is a historically unpopular president. And that goes back to the origin story here. Why did Arnold Schwarzenegger make the phone call to Greg Abbott? Donald Trump is a historically unpopular president. And that goes back to the origin story here. Why did Arnold Schwarzenegger make the phone call to Greg Abbott? He knows he's going to lose the election next November.

He has to change the rules. He has to rig the game. And with respect to the former governor, that's not an even playing field where it's just best ideas are going to actually win out, not when the federalization of the guard is appearing more and more obvious to people

and the voter suppression that's going on with the DOJ and with masked men and the secret police from ICE that are occurring across this country. So this is a different time and it requires a different approach to dealing with Trump and Trump. But you don't think, at least in California, if there was a fair election between a Republican and a Democrat in a competitive race,

that there could be a fair election here? That means there are free and fair elections here all the time. The only person who doesn't believe that is Donald Trump, who told me in the Oval Office that I absolutely, he said he absolutely won California.

It's madness that he still actually believes that. Again, this guy's not stopping with everything I just said. He's also going after mail-in ballots. And what the DOJ is actually all about is setting up the pretext. They go into federal court. And watch this.

Again, watch this. They're playing all of these things out on the streets of California. They're testing the theory. This will be brought nationwide in 2026 to ultimately suggest after they lose, they will lose. Donald Trump's gonna lose

Prop 50. Trump, you're gonna lose Prop 50. And they're gonna lose the midterm elections. But they want to set up the criterion conditions to go to federal court to not certify them by alleging something that doesn't exist. And that's exactly why the DOJ was sent in. I don't think it. Everyone that is a right-thinking person knows it.

So if you win Prop 50 election night, real concisely, what's the message California voters are sending? Well, they were standing tall. We're not just drawing maps. We're drawing a line in the sand that this democracy, the best of the Roman Republic, Greek democracy, a notion of independent co-equal branches of government, popular sovereignty, the rule of law, all

matter. Matter more than the rule of Don, the law of the jungle. We believe in institutions. We want to reform them, but we believe in them and we believe in these principles that we've enjoyed that we no longer can take for granted That have endured for 249 years and it's also I think a blowback pitch Because again, they didn't expect we would fight fire with fire. It's a different Democratic Party out here And by the way, let me make this crystal clear. I'm so optimistic About where we're gonna be on election night, November 4th? You're going to have two extraordinary Democratic governors

in New Jersey and Virginia. You're going to have a new leader in New York. And regardless of where you are in terms of the progressive policies or moderate policies, there's an energy that he's brought. His campaign style and energy and the youth, the voice that he's represented in this generational movement.

And we're going to win in Proposition 50. And the narrative's going to shift. Democrats are finally now no longer on their back heels. They're on their toes. Again, it's about weakness versus strength. And the challenge the Democrats have had is we've appeared weak and meek, and now we are asserting ourselves,

and that's what 50 is also representing, an assertion that we're back on the playing field and we are going to fight fire with fire. You think Zoran Modavi is good for the party? I don't think he's bad for the party. I think the way his campaign has been extraordinary.

I think the way he's energized and communicated successfully is clues. It's something we can look at as it relates to policy positions. Good people can disagree. that are going to have the punditry, the lazy punditry, that somehow he's the future of the Democratic Party versus these two extraordinary governors in New Jersey and Virginia, you're going to have to square the fact they ran very different campaigns with different policy platforms, everyone

running to represent their regions, their districts. But bottom line is the way he's campaigned, I think, has really energized the base of this party, and I think there's a lot that could be learned from that. Do you think democratic socialism has a home in the Democratic Party? I think we have to have a bigger tent.

I think the biggest problem with the Democratic Party is a party when I grew up, we had a big tent party. We could disagree on certain issues without being disagreeable. We need to start building those coalitions back. And so you can disagree on certain issues, but when we fundamentally believe in the values of growth and inclusion, and we believe in social justice, racial justice,

economic justice, the things that bind us together, I think we're all better off if we can sort of reconcile those differences. You think the Democratic Party has been weak. How so? In every respect. I think weak and meek. I mean, look, you've heard this line a million times.

It's not even novel to say it. And it really resonated with me years and years ago. Bill Clinton said it. I think he was former president at the time. We got shellacked in another midterms. He said, given the choice, the American people always support strong and wrong versus weak

and right. There's something to that. And I think we've appeared weak on a number of issues. We've lost the national election. We lost both the House and the Senate. We lost our sense. I think we lost our mojo.

We lost our confidence. And we've been on our heels. We've got a guy who knows how to communicate. Terrible order. He's dull beyond words, but he's a great communicator, Trump.

He's flooding the zone. There's an asymmetry as it relates to the way he's able to communicate. And we haven't been able to respond. But again, November 4, I really believe, is a moment, a profound and consequential moment, that's going to give us momentum into 2026. And look what happens.

In November 2026, Donald Trump's presidency de facto ends. He'll see the President of the United States, fire and fury, signifying a lot less. But when we take back that house, when Speaker Jeffries is sworn in, we'll finally have a co-equal branch of government, not a supine Congress and a supine Supreme Court.

By the way, a Supreme Court that's now encouraging and promoting racial profiling. We'll get to that, I hope, at some point today. So, but based off of what you're saying, was President Biden and Vice President Harris weak? No. I think the outcome of the election when you lose, and we lost badly. We lost badly. We lost the electoral vote, all

seven swing states. We lost the popular vote, and we lost the House and Senate. You can't deny that. Those are fundamental facts. And you come from that. Those are fundamental facts. And you come from that, and then we're struggling with message. We've got new leadership at the DNC.

We've got transition there. And we're all trying to figure out what happened, what went wrong. And then you've got this fire and fury from Donald Trump, and he's moving aggressively, pushing back norms, doesn't care about rules or regulations. Again, the rule of Don, not the rule of law.

And so in all that chaos was this sort of crisis of confidence that I think we're going to find again. We saw it with the people, seven plus million people that came out in the No King's Rally. We're now supported by that. Jeffries and Schumer, I think, are doing an outstanding job

shape-shifting the shutdown. Trump has failed on the shutdown to define it in a way that it's hurting the Democrats more than it's hurting his own party, which is a failure on his part, and a strength of the Democratic message because health care is a resonant issue that crosses over, not just Democrats and Republicans.

I'm very, very excited about this moment for the Democratic Party. I think the moments to come, we are in a very good position compared to where we've been. Obviously we're also in a very divided time as a country. Part of what you've tried to do with your podcast is at least have conversations with people on the other side. The first conversation was with Charlie Kirk. Yeah. And this is how you started that podcast.

Literally last night trying to put my son to bed, he's like, no dad, I just, what time? What time's Charlie gonna be here? What time? And I'm like, dude, you're in school tomorrow, he's 13. He's like, no, no, this morning?

Wakes up at six something, he's like, I'm coming. So that's your son, obviously a fan of Charlie Kirk. What was the conversation like between you and your son after Charlie Kirk was assassinated? He called me, I don't know how he got a phone, but he called me from school that day, really alarmed, and all his friends were around the phone

that wanted to meet us about, express or understand what was going on, he wanted to know if he was dead. He wasn't a fan of him as much as he was familiar with him. And it was very revelatory for me because he's also out there, my son is 11, 12 years old, he's sitting there talking to me about not just Charlie Kirk, but folks like Andrew Tate and he's, you know, sort of beyond Joe Rogan, in many ways sort of Facebook in so many respects of sort of this novelty of the pod, Man O' Spear, etc. And

it was so interesting to me in that context that he knew so much about Kirk. And that was a true story. I didn't know what he was staying or staying for. He didn't even have a strong position himself. But you know what? He felt like Charlie was talking to him and other young men and boys. And I think the Democratic Party has failed in that respect. We have abandoned our young men and boys in terms of focusing on them,

telling them they matter and we care. Young folks are in a crisis in this country. First generation in our lifetime, 30 and younger, not doing better than their parents. Suicide rates, educational attainment, dropouts, deaths of despair across the spectrum. This is code red. And if that happened to any other group, Democrats would be jumping over themselves to identify the needs of those groups. So I appreciated that.

It's one of the reasons I had Charlie on, not to debate him, but to get in under the hood and to understand why he and others have been so successful in that space. And that was demonstrably example by the outcome of the election

and how Trump also exploited that, not with policy, but through attention. And I think we need to give it more attention. I'm doing that in terms of our executive order in the state. We're doing it at scale. And I know a number of other governors

are focusing on this as well. But just on a human level, was that scary? The fact that he was, and that that's where our conversation is and that's what's happening. Has that made you think differently about your own safety? Well, of course. I mean, look, our teams were talking all the time. Charlie went right after that podcast,

he just blasted me for two months. He must've run- He did his first interview with me after that. Yeah, he just ripped me apart. Look, that's not what, we do that. I go on, I'll do the DeSantis stuff. I'll sit there debating Hannity

and go on all the right wing thing. I do that, but this podcast was trying to find the humanity. We all wanna be loved, need to be loved. We all wanna be protected, connected, and respected. And I think there's some humanity here that needs to also be cultivated

as we're going back and forth. I mean, look, I extended that arm to Donald Trump here, the tarmac, extended my time and attention to him, 90 minutes in the Oval Office, up until a phone call on a Friday night where we were talking about everything but nationalizing or federalizing the National Guard, and then all of a sudden I thought, well, this guy's lied to me, he lied to the American people about that conversation.

And that for me, as I told you, back to the origin story here of why I feel like I've changed, is for me, everything changed. This guy's not screwing around. And this moment requires a clarity and conviction.

And part of that change was the memes that your office has done. We've got some examples of some of those. We've got like a Marie Antoinette from him. Well, that seems appropriate with a ballroom, 300 million. By the way, it won't be three,

it'll probably be four or 500 million when it's done. We've seen others like, where is the beef? And what is the, obviously Democrats find this funny. A lot of Republicans find it annoying. It is intended to put a mirror up to what Trump is doing. Do you ever worry though that it actually contributes to more division? No I don't

think I mean how can it get him Donald Trump takes floods that zone. He's division and chaos. He's you know that's that's that's what he sells and he sells it hourly daily at scale scale, humiliating people, vulnerable communities in particular, talking down impasse folks. That said, we put a mirror up on the absurdity of the president of the United States, in all caps, thank you for the attention to this matter, as he puts his picture up there on

Mount Rushmore, as he puts his picture in a play as the pope, as he sits there now with a with an f-14 or 15 or whatever the hell was in the AI generated video the dumping you know sh it poop all over the American people I remember the good old days of deplorables and this guy is doing that to people that are out there expressing their patriotic First Amendment rights of free expression on No King's Day where there were no images of chaos no images that they asserted

would be the dominant memes and images coming out of that parade, out of that day of resistance. And so I'm trying to push back. And I think it's important because communication matters. Driving the narrative matters. Substance Prop 50, Substance 53 lawsuits

against the administration, Substance $11 insulin, $25 minimum wage for health care workers, $20 minimum wage for fast food workers, a worker-centered career education strategy with over 600,000 new apprenticeships, reforming our civil service system,

a brand new grade pre-K for all, improved test scores in California. I can go through a list. Universal health care, the whole thing. Substance. At the same time, we've got to drive the narrative.

Donald Trump, again, master communicator. We need to learn from that. And I'm trying to put a mirror up. I'm iterating. I'm not trying to say everybody else should follow. But I do think we are not as effective as we need to be on the communication side.

Has there been a meme they've brought you,

your staff, that you said, that's a little too far, guys?

No, but I do love our Patriot store. And I do think it was appropriate, and I may have offended people, and it goes to your question, when I did Signature Series knee pads. They're sold out, and I think it was because of the 219 that were ordered by Speaker Johnson

or those that we sent him. I mean, look, these guys are selling out. I mean, law firms, the media, respectfully, we're seeing it with universities selling out. We're seeing corporations, a lot of them in my great state of California.

We're seeing state capitalism, crony capitalism. I can't take it anymore. And you know what? This, this, this, this republic can't take it much longer. And so again, go to the Patriot store. It's also some great t-shirts. There's some 2026 Newsom for governor hats, as absurd as that is, we haven't even talked about

Trump's foray into 2028. Again, we have to have a sense of humor, but we have to put up a mirror to this absurdity that is going on in 1600 Pennsylvania. You really think that Trump's running again? How many months have I said this? Well before. I had Bannon on my show, as well.

These guys aren't screwing around. And why? Because they understand MAGA's not a movement. There's no there there. J.D. Vance, how about how did, how about Bannon? Laying out, J.D. Vance didn't even bring him up. MAGA is a cult of personality.

Donald Trump, he's weakness masquerading as strength. They have a clock. What is again the Election Rigging Response Act? They have to rig the election. They're underwater, historically unpopular in every category.

They have to rig the system. They have to wreck it. That's what it's about. The wrecking ball that we saw in the East Wing is happening with every institution that cultivates independent thinking.

That's one thing all of them have in common, all of these actions. And that should send a chill to the American people, not just Democrats, Republicans, independents, Americans. You want to go on Joe Rogan show and bring this message to his people.

I have no interest, but he seems to have strong opinions of me. So he should do it. Why don't we debate, bro?

Yeah.

So, so you've also sort of mocked him on online and this was his response to that.

Jesus.

You're talking some shit on Twitter. Online and this was his response to that

Some shit on Twitter. I know it's like you think that's gonna work like that's so stupid like this is such a bad look

Yeah, it's a bad choice. There's a little desperation in it, but it's just stupid It's like this is a bad strategy like I probably would have had him on yeah, but now I'm like no

What are you doing? There is fun version where you just do it and cook him

You know he'll cook himself

He won't look he hasn't for years and years He's been attacking me, and it's one way, and he won't have me on he's consistently not on me on by the way I'm moving on I have no interest I you're done with him Joe Rogan's the Facebook of podcasting He was sitting across one of the brightest minds in podcasting right now. The guy was in the mic,

and there are a lot of people at the mic doing extraordinary things in podcasting.

I mean, Joe Rogan's got a pretty big audience still, though.

You know what? But with all due respect, if he has a big audience, but he doesn't have big enough confidence, I didn't go there, to have me on. Well, you've called him a chicken. But he's been attacking for a minute. Here's the thing.

These guys, they all have something in common. It's one way they attack, they belittle, they demean, they take things out of context. But this is a serious thing. And so often we just sit back and go, oh, God, I really would love to go on, oh, if Kamala Harris just went on Joe Rogan, she would have won. It's so much deeper than that.

And the unwillingness for a guy like that to even have the common courtesy to attack someone and not have the decency to say, you know what? Why don't you have a chance to come on? Let's have a civil dialogue. I've watched you on podcasts with like Sean Ryan,

who's a close buddy of his. He had the curse on me for four hours. Sean Hannity, folks like that. And so if I can go on Sean Ryan and Sean Hannity, what are you worried about? Joe, you're going to cook me or I'm going to cook myself. But again, this is an opportunity. Thank you. I have zero interest in going on Joe Rogan. I've moved on. Joe Rogan's point, though, which is what your critics would say, and obviously he's one of them, is that they feel like you haven't done that great a job in California.

That housing affordability is a huge issue. We're highest gas prices. We've got, it's more expensive to live here than anywhere else. And that's been the case. And they blame your policies for that.

Okay, well, we've gone from the sixth largest economy since I got here to the fourth largest economy. You still have huge problems with income inequality. We were number three in the number of Fortune 500 companies here. We're now number one with 58 Fortune 500 companies. We dominate in AI, number one in factory jobs, and number one in two-way trade, direct foreign investment.

We're a $4.1 trillion economy. I haven't done the most significant housing reforms in US history. We've just passed some of the most consequential housing reforms. You saw we had lower our unsheltered homeless rate. You just lifted off the grievances. I'm gonna list off the particular response. We're finally seeing real progress on homelessness.

These are decades going. You saw Arnold Schwarzenegger. We had peak homelessness under Arnold in 2004. So you're absolutely right. Decades and decades, we have failed on the issue of housing Affordability explains more things in more ways on more days about what's wrong. It's a state right and we have made

major progress on Fundamental reforms moving from a NIMBY mindset to a YIMBY mindset housing accountability units We're suing cities that are not producing enough housing We are flooding the zones in terms of new zoning reforms, land use reforms, and we've empowered now local communities in a way that we haven't in the past.

So those are legit critiques. Those are my own critiques of my own state. But again, my state of mind is, let's dialogue with these things. He doesn't want to have those dialogues. He wants to have a one-way conversation. And I totally understand it, and we've moved on.

OK. But you understand how, for some people, a lot of those issues, what you talked about, are great for people at the top, but a lot of folks at the bottom are struggling. Well, a $25 minimum wage for health care workers,

when you have 20 Republican states with $7.25 minimum wage, are you kidding? Deaths of despairs, productivity wages lower in those states, higher tax rates in Texas and Florida than California for working people. Our progressive tax rate. We just did a $60 billion tax rebate, a new bill to address the issue of utility costs

and burdens. We have the most aggressive statewide rent control reforms in the nation. I go down a hundred things. I mean, the work we did, seriously, on pre-K for all,

after school for all, summer school for all, community schools models, work we're doing on childcare, almost 200,000 new subsidized childcare slots, the work we're doing on the environment, low carbon green growth. I'm prideful of all of those things.

I can go down a list that's even deeper, but 100% right. California for decades has struggled with the issue of affordability. California for decades has had challenge in this space, but never first time in decades have we flooded the zone on fundamental reforms in this space. And I'm very proud of the legislature

and their hard work in this space as well. So the governor's race is already on. Senator Alex Padilla. I'm not running for a third term. I appreciate Out on my Patriot site Alex Padilla is considering running he's somebody you appointed to the Senate if he asked you Would you say it's a good job? You should do it. Oh, it's it's it's a what a gift

Yeah, what what a think he'd with grace the military governor. What a, with grace and humility, what a gift. To be a state larger than 21 state populations combined that dominates in every, again, every critical sector of our economy. Half of the country's vegetables, three quarters the fruits and nuts. You talk about farmers and ranchers,

you're talking about California. You talk about innovators and entrepreneurs. You talk about venture capital. You talk about patents. University's the finest in the world. Five new Nobel laureates coming from the UC system.

You're asking me, if Padilla called me, would I say this is a good job? What a gift, what a gift. You think he'd be a good governor? I think he'd be an outstanding governor. I think there are a number of people

that could do a great job. Alex is, I have a special place for Alex Padilla. He's a special person. What did you think when you heard the Katie Porter tapes? I, the grace, God go all of us. I reached out to her, full disclosure, and I, you know, I also, you know, said it publicly, I said it a few weeks ago, I, you know, everyone, we all have a bad day. My God, roll the tape. I mean, that's what Rogan does 24-7.

Yeah, we all do. Donald Trump seems to have one every hour of every day. And we're worried about her having a tough, so it was exploited understandably in a political context. But I've known her for years and again, a little bit of grace in this business. Let's end with a few fun things.

It's Halloween this week and I know your family loves Halloween. You know what we don't love? What? That the cost of candy is up 10.8% because of this administration. The cost of my coffee up 20.9% since Trump was elected. I was trying to do something fun but you made it policy.

But it's Halloween right and you guys have posted your family pictures on Halloween before. You've had some great outfits in the past. This was more of a superhero thing. Some of them have been more political of nature. This is when you were Supreme Court justices, I think.

One year you were also candidates for president. This was a Star Wars year. Oh my gosh. Are you going to be doing a group Halloween? And if so, what is it and who decides that? A few years ago, we dressed up as the candidates

for president and little Dutchie, who was seven or eight, was dressed up as Bernie Sanders. And he still goes, in millionaires and billionaires. I'm like, he still can going to be a judge. I'm not going to be a judge. I'm not going to be a judge. I'm not going to be a millionaires and billionaires

and he still can't get it out of his head. Like my wife was Elizabeth Warren. I was Joe Biden, um, which I was proud to be now. I'll still have his back. That was a lot of fun.

No, my were over that. They're like, why? It's like, I wanna be Buttigieg. No, I wanna be, you know, so it was great. But I don't know what it is. Was it my gray hair that I think

the reason I was Biden? Yeah, well, he's the guy that won, it all worked out. And quickly, some rapid fire stuff for you. What is your favorite Halloween candy? Favorite? Tootsie Rolls. But those are also through the roof.

Did you see the cost of Tootsie Rolls? No, I'm really starting to get upset here. It's not just the cost of beef. That's why I did the Where's the Beef. That's an ode. You're too young to remember. I still know where's the beef. You should look it up, Walter Mondale's best moment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. How'd that work out for him?

I know, no one remembers.

He won one state. I'm an 80s kid.

One state, yeah, yeah, yeah. What is your favorite TV show that you're binging right now? Oh gosh, that's a good question. I've been prop 50 to death. No, it's depressing. It's gonna be your new favorite TV show that you're binging. I like this story. Yeah. Yeah What's the favorite book you've read recently? Oh, I just I got Jonathan Carl I just got his new book which I'm looking forward to and then I also got Sorkin's new book on

1929 which is a must read now that just shows you what I what I read for fun. I So the Dodgers are in the World Series I know this is the time of year where you pretend to be a Dodger fan I do the same sort of thing. So the Dodgers are in the World Series. This is the time of year where you pretend to be a Dodger fan. Are you actually rooting for the Dodgers? We're all blue for you.

You're in a light blue shirt.

There's a lot of blue in this set. You know what? And you know what? There was nothing blue about what I, you know, negative in that respect when I did the with the Premier of Ontario and we did a little bet. We called out Trump's tariffs. But I said, I said, as a lifelong

Giants fan, go Dodgers. I said it. And you know what? It didn't feel so bad. It wasn't as bad as it felt a couple years ago. We've gotten used to doing it because the Dodgers have been doing a lot better than the Giants. It was enough. Yeah. I remember when we were out at Dodger Stadium after they won the World Series with Fernando Valenzuela.

And you forgot to mention the real Padilla story. I lost a bet to him. And I had to go out there with a grounds crew as a Giants fan and actually do real work cleaning up in the damn field out there. Last two questions. Who is your role model? Oh my, it's a composite. My dad,

I have a picture of my father and Bobby Kennedy. Which is your most prized possession, right? With a signature of a Bobby Kennedy to my mom, Tessa. And that's the thing I go in and grab out of a fire. Most important thing. And it symbolizes everything. Sarge Shriver perhaps may be the blend of the two of them. And if there's someone that to me lives outside the lines of influence, he never served a position of formal authority, but he had more moral authority,

meaning he was never elected to something. He served in important positions, but he delivered extraordinary results. And to me, the vernacular of the 60s, solving for ignorance, poverty, and disease, the spirit of the 60s, the spirit of Sarge Schreiber.

And I'll tell you, this is not a presidential point. As you know, we have the largest Peace Corps, larger Service Corps than the Peace Corps. I really believe we need to focus on patriotism, we need to focus on service. We need to be more reform- oriented as a party. We can't just be always anti, I get all of that.

There's a time and a season for all of that, but there's a pivot and service is a big part of that pivot. And lastly, what is your favorite quote or motto? You miss 100% of the shots you don't take, but I'll tell you the motto that I think about more often than not is what Michelangelo said, that the biggest risk in life is not that we aim too high and miss it, it's that we aim too low and reach it.

And I say that in terms of being a little bit more audacious to address the fact that 10% of people, two thirds the wealth. The one thing Donald Trump has been right about is diagnosing the problem in the economy that's not working for too many people.

The question is, is policies or disaster masks were deportations, taxes, cuts for billionaires and tariffs. But the Democratic Party has a responsibility and an opportunity here to develop and design a compelling vision to address that issue. And I think, again, I think of that quote, we've been playing in the margins. I highlighted a lot of the work we've done here. We've got a swing for the fences in the spirit of the World Series. Governor, thank you so much for being our first guest on our first show.

Really appreciate it.

Hopefully you'll come back. Hopefully it doesn't get canceled after this.

Jesus.

Because of me. You're already canceling me on night one? Not even with what I said. Jesus. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.