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Did Gavin Newsom Come Up With the Most Hysterical Response to the End of Affirmative Action Yet?

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  June 29, 2023 6:15 PM

Earlier on Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned affirmative action with a pair of cases, one involving Harvard and the other University of North Carolina. Justice Clarence Thomas even read his concurrence from the bench--something you don't see every day--kicking butt in the process. The left was predictably apoplectic, though perhaps nobody more so than Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA).

As has become almost formulaic from the governor, Newsom felt the need to lament "[t]hey want to bring America back to the era of book bans and segregated campuses," without any proof. "We cannot let them," he also claimed in his tweet.

As hysterical as it is, it's also easily refuted. "Gavin" has been trending on Twitter, as people schooled the governor of the largest state, who could really learn a thing or two about the place he's supposed to be leading. The tweet has almost 14,000 replies in the over five hours since it's been up. Community Notes may really want to get in on this one. 

Our friends at Twitchy highlighted a theme of people chiming in remind the governor that affirmative action in public schools has been illegal since 1996 due to Proposition 209. The state also declined to bring it back in 2020, with Proposition 16. Just 42.77 percent voted in favor of it. 

There are others in California who are not so happy. A group known as Partnership for Los Angeles Schools released a statement on Thursday to "denounce" the rulings. This is even as the statement, attributed to Deycy Hernandez, the group's chief external officer, acknowledges Prop 209. With added emphasis, the statement in part read:

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...In 1996, when Proposition 209 passed in California banning race and ethnicity as a factor in public education, we saw a drastic decrease in the number of Black and Latinx students who applied and were admitted to the most selective schools within the University of California (UC) system, and we saw many students that opted out from enrolling at the UC altogether even after being admitted.

A plurality of residents in Los Angeles, at 48.4 percent, are Latino, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The term "Latinx" is considered something of a slur, and polling shows use of the term among the community is particularly small, at just 2 percent according to one poll. 

Although Los Angeles was one of the few counties to vote for Prop 16, it was by narrow margins.

This isn't the only way in which Newsom has gotten it so wrong. When it comes to those supposed book bans he's always ranting and raving about, when he complained about them in March of last year, he did so by tweeting a picture of him reading Toni Morrison's "Beloved." Also pictured was Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," which was actually banned by some districts in California. 

You'd think that would have quieted him down some, but he's continued to keep up with his obsessive attacks on book bans, including and especially in going after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). He also blamed DeSantis for a gang related shooting at Hollywood Beach on Memorial Day, citing a gun rights law DeSantis signed. Newsom didn't even categorize the law accurately, and, more importantly, it won't be going into effect until July 1. 

While DeSantis is running for president, Newsom claims that he is not. If that's truly the case, he should really go back to focusing on running his own state, unless he wants someone like DeSantis to have to come clean it up. 

As much as Newsom may be trying to convince us of this though, as he did quite forcefully earlier this month, there's some who are just not buying he isn't looking to be in charge. In Tuesday's episode of "Tucker on Twitter," Tucker Carlson suggested Newsom could replace President Joe Biden, given his advanced age and mental decline.