Sean Hannity brought out the best in Gavin Newsom
California Gov. Gavin Newsom should consider his sit-down interview with Fox News commentator/Donald Trump masseuse Sean Hannity on Monday for what it was: spring training.
Newsom has sailed from leading San Francisco’s Parking and Traffic Commission to the world’s fifth-largest economy in a little over two decades, but he’s never had to deal in any meaningful way with one pesky obstacle during that meteoric rise: Republicans.
Oh sure, he had Republican opponents when he ran for lieutenant governor and governor. (Quick, name them!) And there was the 2021 Republican-driven recall, but he batted that away. But an ongoing, Republican nemesis with some heft? A Mitch McConnell? A John Boehner? Even a Kevin McCarthy?
Nope. Never had one.
He’s got a Democratic supermajority in the Legislature, and he was drowning in Democrats when he was mayor of San Francisco.
So when Newsom sat down with Hannity on Monday for an hourlong interview, it was a chance to see how the governor would deal with the big dog of conservative cable news, at least now that Tucker Carlson has been exiled to Twitter.
If Newsom wants to become a national voice for Democrats, the guy who punches back against GOP talking points first and faster, the governor who is going to rally red state support for a new constitutional amendment on gun control, he’s going to have to leave the warm blue political waters of California and stand toe to toe with conservatives.
He would have to appear on a network where My Pillow ads aren’t mocked. They’re ubiquitous.
The verdict from round one of Newsom’s two-part interview: Hannity brought out the best in Newsom. And just a little of the worst. For many Fox News viewers, it was a chance to see a real-life working Democrat who wasn’t foaming at the mouth or defanged and listless like Hannity’s former partner, Alan Colmes.
For Newsom, it was the opportunity not just to introduce himself to red America, it was a chance to move beyond the caricature of him as Gov. French Laundry.
A younger Newsom would have let Hannity’s partisan questions get under his skin and turned petulant. Longtime Newsom watchers remember how thin-skinned the 30-something mayor occasionally would get under tough questioning from local reporters in San Francisco. It made him seem immature and not ready for prime time.
Instead, Newsom, 55, countered Hannity on Monday with something rarely seen from Fox guests: facts. He flashed a confident smile and even a dash or two of humility.
Deflecting the barrage of questions from Hannity — who rarely waits for an answer before moving onto the next question — also made Newsom do something he too seldom does: talk like an ordinary person and not a public policy professor.
There was precious little of the wonk-speak that lards up Newsom’s typical responses. He largely disposed of talking about “frames'' and ‘the iterative process’ and instead punched back with a blizzard of facts and context. (OK, except for the time he gratuitously quoted Michelangelo.)
When Hannity pressed him on why California spends $2.7 billion a year on health care for undocumented residents, Newsom said, “How many billions are we spending on uncompensated care? People end up in the emergency room on the back end, wasting taxpayer money.”
When Hannity drilled him on why California is a sanctuary state, Newsom pointed out that former Trump legal adviser Rudy Giuliani defended undocumented immigrants — even suing the federal government on their behalf — when he was mayor of New York. (Said Giuliani in 1996: “If you come here and you work hard and you happen to be in an undocumented status, you’re one of the people who we want in this city. You’re somebody that we want to protect.”)
Said Hannity: “I didn’t know that.”
When Hannity came at him with how he was the first governor of California to preside over a net outmigration while in office, Newsom said 17 other states did, too, including some red states. Newsom batted away the flurry of charts comparing Florida and California with a blizzard of facts about California creating more jobs and having more IPOs and, well, stuff you’ve heard for years.
Newsom showed humility when Hannity called him out for California’s abysmal record on homelessness. Newsom agreed, calling the situation “disgraceful.” “I own this. I take responsibility for this,” he said, after touting his $15.3 billion homelessness program.
The only time he started to veer into petulance was when Hannity hammered him on his infamous meal at The French Laundry. “And you know what,” Newsom said. “For the grace of God, no one else has ever made a mistake. I guess I did.” But Newsom veered away saying, “It was dumb. I own it.”
That was a blip. For an hour, Newsom effortlessly stood toe to toe with Hannity and buried him in a blizzard of stats. About the economy. Job creation. Immigration. Finally, Hannity had had enough. The host paid Newsom a backdoor compliment under the guise of ripping President Biden.
“Here’s the problem,” Hannity said. “You’re arguing. You’re fighting. You’re battling. You’re articulate. We could sit here for three hours, probably have a beer or two in the middle of this. And you can keep going. Here’s the problem. Your president can’t have this conversation. He’s not capable of it.”
Newsom didn’t take the bait. He backed up Biden, who he has wholeheartedly endorsed.
“He’s capable. I see results,” Newsom said. “I’ve seen a master class of results the last few years.”
Hannity made Newsom an offer: He would moderate a debate between Newsom and the Californian’s Republican nemesis, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“We’ll do a two-hour debate,” Hannity said.
Said Newsom: “Make it three.”
That won’t be spring training. It will be the regular season.
Game on.
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
