CNN has raised eyebrows over California Gov. Gavin Newsom's (D) recent shift in views, criticizing him for spending years championing progressive policies only to now disparage them on his newly launched podcast. The network pointed out his hypocrisy after the governor’s sudden reversal, which has led to questions about his political consistency and motivations as his time as governor ends. Once a staunch advocate for issues like universal healthcare and climate change action, Newsom now seems to distance himself from those very positions.
During the first episode of his new podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” which he described as a show in which he talks with people he “disagrees with,” lambasted Democrats for spending the entirety of the 2024 election cycle focusing on defending DEI initiatives, transgender athletes, and taxpayer-funded transition surgeries for felons and minors.
However, CNN's Andrew Kaczynski took notice and decided to produce a "KFile" highlighting the numerous instances when Newsom praised the very policies he now criticizes.
Newsom has taken aim at a number of causes popular among progressives: He’s rejected the term “Latinx,” said he doesn’t back trans women competing in women’s sports, and suggested he opposes taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries for prisoners and detained immigrants.
His more than 20-year political record in California tells a much different story.
Newsom has repeatedly used the term “Latinx,” a gender-neutral term referring to people of Latin American descent. He’s also supported a number of policies over the years expanding transgender rights, including those for undocumented immigrants and even signing into law a bill acknowledging prisoners’ need for gender transition medical care. Now, in the aftermath of the 2024 election, with the Democratic Party facing record low favorability numbers, Newsom appears to be disavowing some of these positions as he wrangles with conservatives on his new podcast.
Kaczynski pointed out that while Newsom acknowledges what's broken in the Democratic Party, the governor spent the majority of his career advocating for many of the issues he now criticizes on his podcast.
He goes on to list the issues Newsom once defended:
As governor in 2020, Newsom signed a landmark bill expanding rights for transgender prisoners, allowing inmates to be housed based on their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth and acknowledging their need for gender transition care.
As lieutenant governor in 2014, Newsom celebrated California’s new law allowing trans student athletes to compete in sports that align with their gender. He then applauded the failure of a Republican-led campaign to repeal the law.
California’s Medicaid program, which now covers undocumented immigrants in the state through an expansion approved under Newsom in 2021, also provides taxpayer-funded gender transition surgery, according to a 2022 memo from the state-run health provider.
Kaczynski is not the only CNN talking head exposing Newsom’s hypocrisy. The network’s Erin Burnett accused Newsom of rewriting history by criticizing progressive policies he once championed.
She noted how Newsom, once praised for being a progressive leader in California, has now aligned himself with conservative figures like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk on his new podcast. Burnett pointed out that he has changed his position on several key issues once central to his political identity, including backing away from unpopular progressive policies he had previously championed.
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