California Gov. Gavin Newsom asks ‘What the hell’s going on in this country?’
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
NEWSOM DOES D.C.
The governor of America’s most populous state, visiting the nation’s capital this week, took the occasion of an award acceptance speech Wednesday to pursue one of his favorite pastimes: trashing Florida and Texas.
“What’s happening now, banning books, suppressing speech, the othering of our students, teachers, parents, it’s alarming,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is absolutely not-maybe-kinda-sorta-probably-who knows looking at the 2024 presidential race.
The governor spoke of how states like Florida and Texas are banning books, with Florida specifically prohibiting 42 that contain “social-emotional learning,” a widely-used curriculum that seeks to help children develop self-control and relationship skills.
“The real meme of the moment is no longer (Critical Race Theory), it seems to be something called social-emotional learning,” Newsom said.
Newsom took after Texas, which he described as a “talking good game now about mental health” yet cut more than $200 million over the last two years from the state’s Health and Human Services Commission.
“You know why I’m up here? Because we just expanded mental health by $4.7 billion in our public education system in the state of California. Everybody’s talking about mental health, but they’re also talking out of one side of their mouth about social-emotional learning,” Newsom said.
Newsom also had more to say about Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law.
“What the hell’s going on in this country? You can’t wear a rainbow lanyard. I can put up a picture of my spouse without any repercussions. But one or two or 12 of you can’t put up a picture of your spouse of the same sex because it could just invite controversy. That’s what stands today for education reform, at least that seems to be the debate,” he said.
Oh, and the speculation about Oval Office ambitions? He tamped that down again on Wednesday, when he told reporters that he believes President Joe Biden should run for reelection and offered his support, according to Politico reporter Christopher Cadelago.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“If you think that no one reads your local newspaper and it doesn’t matter, I get it. But then when that same newspaper writes something about you that you don’t like, you can’t complain that EVERYONE saw it.”
- California Republican consultant Matt Rexroad, via Twitter.
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This story was originally published July 14, 2022 at 4:55 AM.