California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), who shut down houses of worship during the coronavirus pandemic, has launched a new campaign to fight “authoritarian” leaders who, he says, are threatening democracy in America.
Newsom announced his new project in a Mar. 30 video launching a new federal Political Action Committee, “Campaign for Democracy,” through which he intends to play a greater role in national politics.
NEW: I'm launching a new organization, Campaign for Democracy.
America is in an existential struggle for democracy.
Extremist Republicans are systematically attacking the very foundations of our free society — denying women equality, attacking https://t.co/dhkSqoB0db… pic.twitter.com/cvdJu9mNro
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) March 30, 2023
In the video Newsom says that the “problem in our country right now” is “authoritarian leaders, who are so hell-bent on gaining power and keeping it, by whatever means necessary, that they’re directly attacking our freedoms, in state after state.”
He shows images of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), among others — two governors whose states are attracting businesses and residents from California due to their greater freedom from taxes and regulations.
Some of Newsom’s onerous coronavirus restrictions, such as a ban on indoor worship meetings, were struck down by the Supreme Court as a violation of religious freedom.
Newsom also prided himself on being the first governor to impose vaccine mandates on all state and healthcare workers. He was equally a champion of mask mandates — though he violated his own rules for photo-ops.
Newsom has also targeted specific industries, such as the oil and gas industry, and his state, until recently, punished the use of incorrect gender pronouns in some circumstances — a violation of the First Amendment.
Dan Walters of CalMatters.org notes:
Was Newsom being an authoritarian when he declared an emergency during the COVID-19 pandemic, suspended dozens of laws, closed public schools and ordered much of the state’s economy to be shut down, erasing nearly 3 million jobs overnight and pushing the state into a severe recession?
…
Was Newsom an authoritarian when he unilaterally stopped executions in 2019, even though the death penalty was and still is state law, and won voter support the last time the issue was placed on the ballot?
Meanwhile, he has signed a number of new laws aimed at restricting or eliminating behavior he and his fellow Democrats consider to be wrong, such as owning guns or resisting construction of new housing. And how about those decrees banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars after 2035?
Though Newsom has denied he has presidential ambitions for 2024, he is thought to be waiting in the wings lest President Joe Biden, who is 80 years old and has low approval ratings, decide not to seek a second term.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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