by Frank Holmes, reporter
He may be the leading challenger to President Joe Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination—but his campaign is already off to a rocky start.
Biden is beset by bad news. The percentage of Democrats who want someone other than Biden as their presidential standard-bearer has increased from a bare majority of 51 percent back in February to an overwhelming 64 percent in a brand new New York Times-Siena College poll.
To make matters worse, a left-wing group calling itself “Don’t Run, Joe” will launch its new petition effort to tell the president to sit out the next election—on November 9, the day after the 2022 midterms.
“The threat of a neofascist GOP,” they say, demands “bold and inspiring leadership from the Oval Office’—and that means new blood. And it looks like someone has stepped up to fill that role: California Gov. Gavin Newsom.”
“Gavin Newsom just jump-started the 2024 campaign,” reported CNN last week. “Gavin Newsom’s 2024 Presidential Campaign Has Begun,” said the Wall Street Journal’s editorial page. On the Fourth of July weekend, Newsom ran attack ads in Florida against another possible 2024 presidential candidate: Gov. Ron DeSantis.
“I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight — or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom: Freedom of speech, freedom to choose, freedom from hate, and the freedom to love,” said the ads.
Politico even called the ads the Newsom-DeSantis face-off the “shadow 2024 race.”
Newsom made the ads while coasting off the fumes of a Yahoo News/YouGov Survey that found him beating Donald Trump in a hypothetical, head-to-head matchup…and doing better than the vice president. “The poll suggests Newsom would be a stronger general election candidate than (Kamala) Harris,” according to a news outlet in Newsom’s hometown of San Francisco.
But just as his star seemed like it was taking off, Newsom fell into a pit of his own making.
Reporter Emily Hoeven of CalMatters found out the governor decided to spend Independence Day weekend in the Big Sky Country of Montana. The problem? Newsom banned travel to Montana for state employees!
The governor of California “is on vacation in Montana,” she said, breaking the story.
Newsom originally didn’t say where he went: He just announced he was taking vacation and put Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis in charge as he left Sacramento.
“His office had been loath to disclose the location until now,” wrote Hoeven.
Now we know why: Because it signals major hypocrisy on the governor’s part. “Montana is one of 22 states to which CA bans state-funded travel due to anti-LGBTQ+ policies,” she noted on Twitter. “It’s also likely to institute an abortion ban.”
SCOOP: @GavinNewsom is on vacation in Montana. His office had been loath to disclose the location until now.
Montana is one of 22 states to which CA bans state-funded travel due to anti-LGBTQ+ policies. It's also likely to institute an abortion ban.
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— Emily Hoeven (@emily_hoeven) July 6, 2022
The trip, reportedly to visit Newsom’s family, brought howls of hypocrisy from his critics.
“California’s ‘travel ban’ is an absurd policy. The hypocrisy of our absurd governor is just the latest illustration,” wrote California state Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, a Republican.
Newsom’s office tried to make a distinction that “the governor’s travel not being paid for by the state.”
“This is a personal trip to visit family who live outside the state,” Newsom’s communications director, Erin Mellon, told the media. “We do not comment on the governor’s detail due to security concerns.”
She didn’t explain why Newsom’s family couldn’t come visit him in California.
Either way, a Republican state senator named Melissa Melendez pointed out a huge loophole Newsom overlooked: California taxpayers are still paying their hard-earned money to underwrite Newsom’s security detail, which goes with him everywhere. The point was so devastating that Newsom’s office couldn’t deny it. “Asked if the state is paying for his security, (a state official) says the office doesn’t comment on security. So, yes then,” she wrote.
But then, Newsom has a long history of living by double standards.
During COVID, when he locked the rest of the state in their homes, he and some lobbyist friends dined out at the elegant, gourmet French Laundry restaurant without masks.
Then, late last year, he got caught going to a $29,000-a-night resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The villa belonged to a Russian oligarch. Meanwhile, regular Californians were advised to eat Thanksgiving turkey outside, because of Covid.
Things got so bad that Newsom faced a recall election against conservative pundit Larry Elder, but he survived.
Now, he’s running for re-election, which he’s practically certain to win. And he’s got his eye set on higher office.
But then, Newsom always seems to want the best for himself, especially if it means leaving California—as his trip to Montana proves.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”