Morning Jolt: No, Really, Why Is Gavin Newsom Governor of California?

TODAY'S JOLT IS SPONSORED BY
BERKLEY BOOKS

WITH JIM GERAGHTY

January 13 2025

No, Really, Why Is Gavin Newsom Governor of California?

On the menu today: As Los Angeles County suffers the worst disaster in its history, California governor Gavin Newsom keeps acting like he's facing a messaging problem. Newsom shouldn't be where he is — not just in the governor's mansion, but as an oft-mentioned potential Democratic presidential contender. Meanwhile, neither the governor nor one of the state's senators want to endorse the performance of Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass during the crisis, a reminder of how close we came to "Vice President Bass," and someone desperately needs to tell the mayor to stop smiling during her messages to the city.

Newsom's Terrible Track Record

Large swaths of the second-most populous city in the U.S. have burnt to the ground, an area equivalent to 62 square miles or roughly the size of Washington, D.C.; as of this writing, the fires have destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 structures, killed at least 24 people and more than 150,000 people are under evacuation orders.

And California governor Gavin Newsom seems to think he's in a public communications crisis. On Friday, during a briefing with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala ...

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A message from Berkley Books

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