-Our first guest tonight is the governor of California.
Please welcome back to the show Governor Gavin Newsom, everyone.
[ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪
♪♪
Welcome back. -Good to be back. Good to be back.
-You know, since the last time you were on the show,
interesting development --
My brother has started doing an impression of you.
And it's very surreal to see you in person
because you guys just -- you do look alike.
[ Laughter ]
And he was recently -- my brother was recently
on loan to the wonderful "Jimmy Kimmel Show."
And take a look
because it really -- I think he's got you down.
Let's take a look. -Let's take a look.
-There are eight approved methods to vote
in the Golden State. [ Laughter ]
Mail-in, walk-in, skate-in.
You can write your vote on a sea turtle.
You can whisper it into a Topo Chico bottle
and then toss it off the Golden Gate Bridge.
-Do you enjoy it? -I mean, that's next-level good.
-It's next-level good.
-I don't want to admit that. -Yeah.
-By the way, the hair is not exactly right,
but, I mean, the rest of it is good.
True story, literally. My 14-year-old saw that
before I did and she said, "Dad, he is so much cooler than you."
-Oh, my God. -Is that even right?
So, you know, she don't have her phone.
-By the way, I want you to know,
I have said to my brother so many times,
"Your hair is not quite right." -No, it ain't right.
-It ain't quite right.
-No. That's good. And then nothing good about
impression-- I mean, that's a lot of stress, right?
But I don't know about all the -- It's a little Cali.
It's a little -- -He does lean into the Cali.
We'll make sure he gets these notes.
You were recently -- You received a lot of attention.
You went on Fox News and you had a debate...
-Yes. -...with Ron DeSantis.
Now, you had gone and done an interview
on Fox News with Sean Hannity,
who was the moderator of this debate.
That seemed to have gone well.
I mean, I feel as though maybe you and Sean
hit it off as much as you could expect.
-Strangely get along. Right? Go figure.
-So your expectation going into this debate was...
-Fair and balanced? -Yeah. That's what it says.
[ Laughter ]
-I don't know about the fair and balance,
but yeah, I did have some expectations.
But the question -- I mean, honestly,
what were we doing there?
I mean, I'm not running for President of United States.
Ron DeSantis apparently still is.
-Yeah. [ Audience ohhs ]
-At least for the next few weeks.
And it was -- It honestly begged the question,
what was that all about?
-Well, you had the line of the night,
which is "one thing that I know for certain
is neither of us are going to be president."
[ Laughter ]
-It was my opening statement. That's a fact.
[ Cheers and applause ] -But when you started
planning this, did you have higher expectations
for where DeSantis would be in the polls?
-No, I didn't. I'll be honest with you.
I have -- and I'm dead serious about this --
I've developed a lot of animus towards him
because of his animus towards all of you.
You know, this guy
is out there scapegoating vulnerable communities.
He's attacking minorities, attacking women.
And I don't like it.
And I wanted to push back against it.
And I felt like the party was a little timid on all this.
I mean, you know, he's out there talking about anti-woke,
and I mean this -- For me, it's not anti-woke.
What he really means is anti-Black.
He's out there censoring historic facts.
He's rewriting history. He was out there -- You know,
he eliminated AP African-American Studies.
He said slavery was somehow some workforce development program.
And he doubled down on that.
So for me, it's a very serious moment
where I just felt it was important to blow back
against that, against that narrative
and hold these guys accountable on a network
where they don't hear from guys like me, ever.
-They certainly don't.
[ Cheers and applause ] And well said.
You went into it,
and I think everybody knew you were going into it,
that it would be a two-on-one situation.
I don't think there was any expectation that,
you know, Sean Hannity had a, you know,
had a horse in that race and it wasn't you,
but was there dirty pool?
Because we've read a lot about what happened
and there were maybe some rules were broken
and maybe the teleprompter was, you know,
maybe tilted towards one candidate.
-Yeah. I mean, all of the ab-- you know, come on.
What are you going to expect? It's Fox. It's in a red state.
It's, you know,
with Hannity who's been out there platforming,
I think, DeSantis 40 or 50 times.
But look, I guess the whole question --
and this is the debate we're having in this country.
Is it smart to engage on their terms?
You know, and I feel like it's important, man.
We're just in these sort of, you know,
these -- we're living in two different worlds, right?
These sort of micro cults.
And people are in this filter bubble
only listening to one thing all the time.
And that's why I started going on Fox.
And that's why I thought it was important
to have a 90-minute live debate
at least so I can assert or push back.
Also, I mean this and I mean this in my core.
It was an honor to be there,
to tell the truth about the Biden record
and to make the case for Biden's re-election.
-Now, you've been out and you've been making this case,
and, you know, there's a lot of good about his record
that it seems like maybe sometimes he's having trouble
getting that message across.
And also, you seem maybe a little solitary
in being out there on the stump for him.
Why do you think there aren't more Democratic voices?
-Well, I mean, we got to step up.
I mean, it's 11 months out, this race,
and I mean this -- I know a lot of people have --
I mean, we're Democrats. We have a lot of sensitivities,
a lot of opinions on a lot of issues.
But 14 million jobs, more than 10 times
the last three Republican administrations combined,
5.2% GDP growth, the lowest unemployment
for Blacks and Hispanics and women in our lifetime.
I mean, 815,000 new manufacturing jobs,
the CHIPs Act, the Science Act, Infrastructure Act,
the PACT Act, the SAVE Act.
I mean, this guy is a master class
I think in the last three years.
I know how people are feeling.
There's a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety,
but it's an extraordinary record.
So the answer to your question is, I don't know.
And I think we need to assert ourselves.
We've got to be more assertive. And frankly, Republicans, man,
they've been defining the terms -- CRT, DEI, ESG.
No one even understands what these things mean.
And we're on the defense.
They think the most important issue for our kids
is drag shows and trans issues,
not gun violence in this country.
I mean, on all of these issues, we're on the right side.
We just need to get on the other side
of our anxiety and doubts and go on the offensive.
-Alright, well, there's still plenty of time, so...
[ Cheers and applause ] -There's plenty of time.
11 months. -11 months.
-Heads up.
-You know, one of the things Ron DeSantis,
he tried to, of course,
he tried to hang the city of San Francisco on you.
That is a city you were the mayor of for many years.
-Yes. -Now, it is obviously
a major city in a state you're the governor of.
San Francisco -- A lot of big cities are having
the problems of San Francisco.
But it does feel like, you know,
Republicans, conservatives, they try to make that the avatar
for what's wrong with Democratic policies.
What is it about San Francisco?
And also, those are very real problems that San Francisco has.
How do you even start to address them?
-Well, I mean, first, you own the issues
and then you start to address the issues.
But look, they've been on a doom loop about San Francisco
ever since Nancy Pelosi became Speaker.
-Yeah. -I mean, remember California's--
Nancy Pelosi's the Speaker of San Francisco.
You got Kamala Harris was a former senator
from California.
California's outperformed the American economy.
It's the tent pole of the American recovery.
27% of all American jobs came from the state just last month.
It's the fifth largest economy in the world.
And its values are a stark contrast, difference is daylight
and darkness between the Republican Party.
So for Fox, One American News,
that thing Newsmax you were referencing earlier,
they have to focus on our failures
in order for them to be right.
And so we're used to it out there,
and yet we still maintain our resiliency.
And I'll tell you, San Francisco is a special place.
It is a unique and special place.
Incredibly resilient and vibrant.
And I'm very proud of it. And, you know, yeah,
I'm defensive about it as we are here
in New York and other places. I'm driving around New York.
Are you kidding? This place during the holidays?
There isn't anything else like it in the world.
-Yeah. -It's beautiful.
So don't believe all that negativity out there.
-With that said, you know,
so I do want to say because you have said
you own the issues as well. Right?
So I was recently in San Francisco,
great meals, wonderful time.
And then also there's streets you walk down where you're like,
"Oh, this is a bad scene." Obviously, a lot of money
has been spent on the homeless problem,
and I think that's great and that's compassionate.
But money only does so much.
It does seem like -- and I think you agree with this --
that the issue is there aren't enough homes
and you're up against zoning, and zoning is often not...
You can't blame it on conservatives.
This is often your own liberal support base that don't want --
-Yeah, NIMBYism. -Yeah, NIMBYism.
Everybody agrees
that we should have homes for these people,
but they don't want it in their neighborhoods
or to block their view. How do you even go about that?
-I'm suing cities.
I threatened to sue my old city, San Francisco.
In fact, we did a big audit
and now they are conforming to state law for the first time
and finally addressing the housing crisis,
the original sin in California,
affordability in all its forms and manifestations,
none more acute than the issues
you see on the streets and sidewalks.
Decades and decades, this has unfolded.
And I'll say this -- and I'm very humble about this
because I'm not naive about the challenges --
I'm the first governor to take on the issue statewide.
The issue of homelessness mostly is a local issue.
It's a county and city issue.
It's overwhelmed the cities and counties.
So the state has asserted itself, and we've done it
on the issue of our time
that I think is really the unity issue.
And that's on the issue of behavioral health
and mental-health reform.
And we are advancing the most significant mental-health
reforms in this nation. And I'm very proud of that.
In California, directionally, 68,000 people off the streets
since I've been governor, 68,000, 6,000 encampments
we clean up. We're moving now in the right direction.
[ Cheers and applause ] -Good to hear.
There's also been a lot of reporting
about your high-speed rail.
-Oh, yeah. -Look, I want high-speed rail
in this country. I don't understand why we don't have it.
In 2008, there was this big old plan to put high-speed rail.
-Yes. -San Francisco to L.A.
$33 billion.
-Three hours, 220 miles an hour. -It would be amazing.
-You don't have to take your shoes off.
-Everything. -It's amazing.
-This is why everybody was so excited in 2008.
And now it's 2023. And guess what.
It's more than $33 billion.
-It's, you know, slightly more than 33.
-It's not even close to done.
-However we closed the gap by $6 billion just last week.
-Did you really? -Yes. Joe Biden.
Because of the infrastructure act
sends $6 billion into the state of California
for a high-speed rail system.
We have two projects that are currently underway.
We have 119-mile track that will be done in 2026,
and we'll have passenger service by 2030, 2032.
-Okay. Gotcha. -On that first leg.
-What would you say -- Because obviously,
look, these big projects,
it's not the first big project to go over budget.
It's not the first one to run into things.
And obviously there are unique issues in California
they have to deal with.
But if a governor from a different state
came to you to ask questions about rail,
what would be the advice you would give them?
Is there any way to avoid what happened
certainly with the cost overruns and the delays?
-There is. I mean, you've got to streamline
your permitting process
and you've got to streamline the process on the litigation side,
which has been the biggest challenge here.
But look, you want to be big, you got to be big in big things.
You want to get cars off the road?
You want to address the issue of health and air quality?
You want to compete globally? High-speed rail.
It's connecting north and south.
It's land use. It's reforms. Talk about housing.
This is about zoning reform in and around
that transit corridor. This is a big idea.
California is the only project, high-speed rail project
in the Western Hemisphere. It's happening.
We're working through the challenges.
I inherited a lot of these things.
No excuse. I own it, and we're moving forward
and we're moving forward in partnership
with the federal government. Thank you again, Joe Biden,
$6 billion for this project.
-Well, thanks for coming out here.
-Good to be with you. -Thanks for owning the wins
and thanks for owning everything else.
It's great to have you. -Great to be back with you.
-Governor Gavin Newsom, everybody.
We'll be right back with Danielle Brooks.