Gavin Newsom high on Kamala Harris — even though they could both seek the presidency someday
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Vice President Kamala Harris would seem to be on a political collision course in a race for the White House someday, but Newsom on Monday had lavish praise for his California colleague.
Newsom told CNN interviewer Dana Bash that President Joe Biden and Harris’ administration is a “master class in terms of performance — bipartisan deals on infrastructure, bipartisan deals on guns and debt ceiling, on the CHIPS and Science Act.”
Asked if Harris was Biden’s best choice for vice president, Newsom kept up the compliments.
“If I think this administration in the last two and a half years has been one of the most outstanding administrations in the last few decades, and she’s a member of that administration. She gets to lay and claim credit to a lot of that success,” he said.
“The answer is absolutely.”
Polls have shown Harris to be widely unpopular, and Republicans have been bashing her for some time, warning supporters that the 80-year-old Biden is at risk of not finishing his term, which means a Harris administration is very possible.
Newsom told NBC’s “Meet the Press’‘ last week that if Harris ran for president, he wouldn’t run against her.
During Monday’s interview, he once again refuted any interest in the White House.
“I’m not that guy,” he said. “I’m just not.”
Despite his comments, Newsom has been taking the sort of steps that a potential presidential candidate does, raising money and traveling the country to spread his views.
Newsom and Harris have similar political roots. Newsom was mayor of San Francisco and won two statewide elections as lieutenant governor before becoming governor. Harris was a San Francisco prosecutor who won two statewide elections as attorney general and then as U.S. senator in 2016.
Newsom’s conversation with Bash touched on concerns around Biden’s age, Hunter Biden’s indictment and Republicans’ impeachment efforts, which the governor compared to “student government.”
“This is a joke,” Newsom said. “... I mean, this is a perversity that the Founding Fathers never conceived of or imagined.”
Bash also probed Newsom about his philosophy around limitations on abortion and California’s new lawsuit against oil companies, which claim they misled consumers about climate change for decades.
“They lied to people, knowingly lied to people,” Newsom said about the alleged deception by oil companies. “It’s completely analogous to the tobacco companies.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2023 at 7:22 PM.
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