Turns out Gavin Newsom and Charlie Kirk actually agree on something
In the debut episode of his new politics podcast, California Gov. Gavin Newsom suggested that his party members were mistaken for arguing that transgender women and girls should be allowed to participate in sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
For the first episode of “This is Gavin Newsom,” the governor sat down with conservative provocateur Charlie Kirk for a discussion about the state of the Democratic Party. According to Mediaite, Newsom asked Kirk for “advice” and argued that people “need to understand your success.” (Kirk, a conservative influencer and ally of President Donald Trump, whose policies have had a devastating effect on LGBTQ+ youth, likely has no insight into what messages can benefit the left.)
“Would you say ‘no’ to men in female sports?” Kirk asked the governor.
“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,” Newsom replied. “I am not wrestling with the fairness issue. I totally agree with you.”
During their 75-minute tête-à-tête, Kirk also encouraged Newsom to speak out against AB Hernandez, a transgender high school track star from California who has received backlash from conservatives after setting the record for the highest triple jump in the girls’ competition. In response to a question about Hernandez, according to Politico, Newsom went off on a tangent about his four children and noted that he and his wife both participated in college-level sports.
“I revere sports, so the issue of fairness is entirely legitimate,” Newsom stated. “And I saw that—the last couple of years, boy did I [see] how you guys were able to exploit that issue at another level.”
Politico noted that Kirk debated Newsom’s use of the word “exploit,” which Newsom replaced with “highlight.”
While some conservatives have criticized Kirk for appearing on the podcast, Newsom admitting that his party is getting “crushed” on transgender issues is arguably more devastating. The Democratic Party was already shifting right on immigration—hopefully, the takeaway from the party’s defeat in 2024 wasn’t that potential 2028 presidential hopefuls should start aligning with conservatives on policies affecting LGBTQ+ Americans as well.
Indeed, on his podcast, according to Politico, Newsom also acknowledged that one of Trump’s most damaging ads against former Vice President Kamala Harris was one where the president called out Harris’s support for providing taxpayer-funded gender transition-related care for detained migrants during her 2020 presidential run.
“She didn’t even react to it, which was even more devastating,” Newsom said of Harris’s response. “Then you had the video [of Harris] as a validator. Brutal. It was a great ad.”
Of course, Trump’s attack and Newsom’s comments on Harris’s position lacked nuance. As Politifact reported last year, federal statute requires that inmates receive access to necessary medical care, which can include gender-affirming surgery. Trump adhered to this ruling during his first term in office, the outlet noted, as any effort to eliminate access to this care would run afoul of the law.
In an interview with Daily Kos, a spokesperson for Newsom defended the governor’s decision to initiate a new podcast venture and to prominently feature conservatives on it. Newsom has previously stated that his show would take inspiration from HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” another controversial host.
RELATED | ‘We need to change the conversation’: Gavin Newsom starts new podcast
While Newsom did, at one point, express sympathy for transgender individuals, it was arguably overshadowed by his more concerning comments about this population.
However, Newsom’s criticism of his own party didn’t stop with their positions on transgender issues. According to Politico, the governor also distanced himself from the use of the gender-neutral term “Latinx,” referred to defunding the police as “lunacy,” and criticized perceived internal issues with the leadership of the Black Lives Matter organization.
It’s somewhat ironic that Newsom would bother to make comments about any of these things, as he previously criticized the right for not having its priorities in line—as conservatives at the time worked to ban “the word ‘Latinx’ and AP Black history courses” instead of addressing more pressing matters. Maybe the governor should follow his own advice and focus future episodes on some of the more pressing issues facing the nation.
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