California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he is "struggling" to pinpoint what the Democratic Party is and what it stands for in the wake of the 2024 elections, adding that the absence of a party-wide postmortem on what went wrong last year will lead Democrats into repeating their mistakes.
Newsom made the remarks in an exclusive sit-down interview with The Hill on Monday.
"I don't know what the party is," Newsom told The Hill. "I'm still struggling with that."
"We have not done a forensic of what just went wrong, period, full stop," Newsom said about the November elections. "I don't think it, I know it."
He added, "The fact that we're not even stress testing what the hell just happened and we're having an honest forensic conversation."
It is not the first time Newsom has reprimanded his own party. Last month in an appearance on "Real Time With Bill Maher," Newsom said: "The Democratic brand is toxic right now.
"We talk down to people. We talk past people."
Newsom, who is termed out as governor in 2026, is widely seen as one of the Democrats' top presidential candidates in 2028, though he has not declared his intentions either way. He has been panned by the progressive wing for abandoning far-left principles, such as trans athletes playing in female sports, and having conservative guests on his new podcast, such as Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk.
"The reaction when I had Charlie Kirk and Bannon on was exactly to me Exhibit A of what I feel is wrong right now with my party: an unwillingness to even engage in platform, to listen," Newsom told The Hill.
It was the interview with Kirk when Newsom asserted that boys and men competing against girls and women was "deeply unfair," sparking outcry from progressives.
Newsom has said he launched the podcast, "This Is Gavin Newsom," as a vehicle to "change the conversation" and hear from a large swath of voices outside the party.
"And so … I'm testing that," Newsom told The Hill. "At the same time, I'm being tested by it, because the reaction has been a little more bumpy than I even anticipated."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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