(CBrief) – Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been a top choice among some Democrats who want an alternative to President Joe Biden in 2024.
But the governor is dousing that idea again, saying that he is behind President Biden if he chooses to campaign again, Politico reported.
“I’ve told everyone in the White House, from the chief of staff to the first lady,” he said.
Newsom relayed the same to Biden himself on election night.
After spending much of the evening with family, aides and supporters at the governor’s mansion watching the surprisingly strong returns for Democrats, the governor dashed over to a Sacramento hotel to briefly celebrate his own landslide reelection and trumpet the approval of a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights in California’s constitution.
“We affirmed clearly with conviction that we are a true freedom state,” Newsom told reporters. He contrasted California, and himself, with book and abortion banning governors in other states who also won reelection but remained nameless. Or at least they did explicitly so, until Newsom alluded to the one “flying migrants to an island.”
It would seem to have all the makings of classic political preview, a coming attraction as they would say 400 miles down the 5. Here was the freshly-reelected, next-generation Democrat of one mega-state standing with his young family and calling out the freshly-reelected, next-generation Republican of another mega-state a few hours after DeSantis claimed victory on stage with his young family.
“I’m all in; put me in coach,” he said to the president. “We have your back.”
“He not only beat Trump once, I think he can beat him again,” he said. “I hope he runs, I’ll enthusiastically support him.”
“It’s frustrating because I have so much reverence and respect for not only the president but the vice president is an old friend, for all of those interesting things you guys all love to write about, we’ve known each other for 25 years,” he said.
An official in President Ronald Reagan’s administration as well as Bush 41 and Bush 43 has laid out a plan in which Democrats could elevate left-wing California Gov. Gavin Newsom to the presidency without him having ever been elected.
In a column for The Hill, consultant Douglas MacKinnon, who was a writer in the White House for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush as well as a special assistant for policy and communications at the Pentagon during the last three years of the George W. Bush Bush administration, wrote that President Joe Biden could essentially install Newsom, who has been mentioned as a potential 2024 Democratic contender anyway.
After noting that last week’s midterm elections turned out better than expected for Democrats, the fact is, both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris remain underwater in terms of their approval ratings. As such, that leaves the party in a precarious position ahead of the next presidential election now less than two years away.
He also claimed that “Trump fatigue” will likely drive voters to the polls to vote against him and, perhaps, Republican candidates, but added the possibility that Trump won’t run or, at best, won’t become his party’s nominee.
“I have written that I don’t believe Trump will run but will drag out the anticipation for as long as possible to keep his ‘brand’ in the news and the campaign donations flowing in. If he does declare that he will not be a candidate in 2024, how much energy will leak out of the Democratic vote machine? Potentially quite a bit,” MacKinnon noted.
"Here’s a game plan: Biden replaces Harris with Newsom and then resigns" (@TheHillOpinion) https://t.co/q6oVny6Nhv pic.twitter.com/2CldgZ4fVj
— The Hill (@thehill) November 14, 2022
Trump has a major announcement planned from his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday evening.
“That possibility, coupled with the drag that Biden and Harris are already attaching to the Democrats’ chances to retain the White House in 2024, raises a critically important question of strategy for their party: Do Democrats jettison both Biden and Harris or keep them and more than likely lose to a strong Republican ticket of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and, perhaps, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley?” the consultant and former GOP administration official continued.
After noting that Tuesday’s election results prove again that the country is very divided and not much political healing is in the offing, MacKinnon laid out the plan:
That reality speaks to the need for a proven vote-getter with lots of money and a logistical machine behind him. In Politics 101, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) meets — maybe even exceeds — those qualifications.
Newsom won reelection easily and now has the luxury of turning his ambitious eyes completely toward the White House. The question then becomes, will his party turn its eyes toward him as the person who might save it from the Biden-Harris dilemma it is surely about to face?
If the answer is “yes,” the “solution” is really not complicated at all. In one scenario, Biden could ask Harris to resign and replace her with Newsom, who then becomes the heir apparent for 2024. Or Biden could replace Harris with Newsom and then resign himself, making Newsom the president before 2024 and arming him with the full force of the Oval Office.
conservativebrief.com/gavin-2024-68611/
