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White House Voices Opposition to Recall Effort to Oust Gov. Gavin Newsom

Julio Rosas
Julio Rosas  |  February 10, 2021 9:50 AM

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked on Tuesday if President Joe Biden had any response to the recall effort California Gov. Gavin Newsom is facing, which gained momentum in response to his disastrous handling of the state's response to COVID-19.

While not giving her now-infamous "circle back" response, Psaki said she had not spoken about the recall effort with President Biden, but added he and Newsom agreed on a wide range of issues.

"We remain closely engaged with him and his office," Psaki said.

Later in the day, Psaki tweeted Newsom has the White House's full support and oppose any effort to recall Newsom, citing the work he has done to address "the climate crisis to getting the pandemic under control."

The recall effort is seeing a higher-than-expected number of Democrats joining the movement. The Washington Examiner reported that nearly 10 percent of petitions that had been submitted were from registered Democrats, with almost 25 percent from voters unaffiliated with any political party and 66.5 percent from Republicans.

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On February 3, the recall campaign reached 1.4 million signatures, almost reaching the required threshold more than a month before the March 10 deadline.