During Wednesday’s Late Late Show With James Corden, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom was treated to a softball forum where he could tout the reopening of the state, despite the fact that many small businesses closed forever due to his draconian lockdown policies.
When host James Corden brought up over 1.5 million California voters forcing a recall election, Newsom “jokingly” tried to get out of that discussion: “Things were going really well for everyone but CBS. And now, of course, was that the CEO of CBS in your ear saying let's talk about the recall?”
“We don't have to talk about the recall,” Corden remarked, before hinting at the controversy over Newsom flaunting his own COVID restrictions to go out to eat with friends at an exclusive French restaurant: “You can-I don't know, give us only restaurants we can eat at, we can go down that road, it's up to you.”
Despite vaguely alluding to one of the many reasons Newsom drew ire from voters, Corden then fretted over how the Democrat was handling being recalled: “Tell me, it feels like this whole thing has been incredibly sensationalized. What are your honest thoughts on the recall? How annoyed are you that you have to deal with this?”
“For me, I think the hardest part is this is the sixth recall effort,” answered Newsom. “Sixth. I've only been in office 29 months. I feel like I have been there 20 years. It’s 29 months, sixth effort and this pre-dates the pandemic. You look, people signed petitions.”
Instead of asking the governor why he thinks an attempted recall has happened six times, Corden continued to sympathize with Newsom. It’s always alarming when peasant voters try to hold their leaders accountable.
“I didn't know this was the sixth time you've had to deal with this and you're constantly having to get people to vote against the recall effort while running California, the fifth largest economy on planet Earth,” said Corden. “Are you exhausted?”
Newsom then responded with a typical politician answer:
You know what I'm exhausted about, we're back in this mega drought on the west coast in the United States. We mad one of the toughest fire seasons in our history last year. We're moving right back into wildfire season. For me, obviously, we've got to focus and defeat the recall or it's a zero sum game.
Convenient how wildfire fire season means all criticism of Newsom must immediately be shut down.
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Here is a transcript of the June 16 Show:
CBS's The Late Late Show with James Corden
06/16/2021
12:57:25 a.m. EasternJAMES CORDEN: Now, yes. Let's talk about the likely recall.
GAVIN NEWSOM: Oh, yeah, let's go right to that. Things were going really well for everyone but CBS. And now, of course, was that the C.E.O. Of CBS in your ear saying let's talk about the recall?
CORDEN: We don't have to talk about the recall. You Can-I don't know, give us only restaurants we can eat at, we can go down that road, it's up to you.
NEWSOM: Talk about regrets, my friend. You ask me about regrets. Elephant in the room.
CORDEN: Tell me, it feels like this whole thing has been incredibly sensationalized. What are your honest thoughts on the recall? How annoyed are you that you have to deal with this?
NEWSOM: For me, I think the hardest part is this is the sixth recall effort. Sixth. I've only been in office 29 months. I feel like I have been there 20 years. It’s 29 months, sixth effort and this pre-dates the pandemic. You look, people signed petitions. It talks about immigration. In fact, the principle proponent of the recall wants to microchip immigrants. That's how this starred. And, so, it's backed by the Republican party, respectfully, and it's backed by some of our most well-known politicians like Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee. So we'll have to defeat it. It will be on the ballot in a few months. We'll have to take it seriously. It's sobering. But I’m also proud. The state's not only turned the page on the pandemic but we have the best economic output in America. Number one in terms of job creation. 38% of the jobs came out of this state, number one in terms of surplus, an $80 billion operating surplus in the state of California, unprecedented in American history. So I feel like the head winds are tailwinds but I'm mindful and sober about the prospect of defeating this.
CORDEN: It's been such -- because I didn't know this was the sixth time you've had to deal with this and you're constantly having to get people to vote against the recall effort while running California, the fifth largest economy on planet Earth. Are you exhausted?
NEWSOM: You know what I'm exhausted about, we're back in this mega drought on the west coast in the United States. We mad one of the toughest fire seasons in our history last year. We're moving right back into wildfire season. For me, obviously, we've got to focus and defeat the recall or it's a zero sum game. We move from crisis to challenge and last year, it wasn't just the pandemic, we had social unrest, all kinds of things with the pandemic, the recession, the displacement, society, fear, loneliness everyone felt, so we had to address that. We're turning the page but we have to confront the conditions of wildfire, drought, and from you -- frustrations as Californians is homelessness and poverty.
CORDEN: I'm glad you brought this up. Me and my family, we moved here six and a half years ago, and it feels like it's got worse year upon year, and particularly in the past two years, 12 months. It's -- you know, roads I used to drive down on my way home, it's an absolute crisis. How do you begin to address it and what is your plan for –
NEWSOM: Number one, you've got to acknowledge it. It's unacceptable. We're the richest and the poorest state in America. So many things that I ran on over two years ago were focused on this issue. Obviously the last 15 months has really put everything else in a different perspective in the paradigm. I'll just tell you, last year, we were able to help, house -- no exaggeration, no B.S. -- 100,000 people. We created 600,000, triple what we've done in our history. One of the interesting things in a perching, it stretches the mind and creates a sense of urgency, and as a consequence, once a mind is stretched it never goes back to its original form. Meaning this, not only do we have a plan but because of the historic budget surplus, $12 billion will be invested, unprecedented, we've never broken a billion, $12 billion, we're putting everything we have to implement strategies. Most importantly, James, the predecessor guy named Ronald Reagan, used to be president of the United States but also governor of California. In 1968 his government began dismantling in behavioral health in qua California. We are investing the most money in history to rebuild our mental healthier system.
