California’s extreme left-leaning Gov. Gavin Newsom has been making a show lately of vetoing some of the more left-wing bills coming out of his state legislature, and it’s fueling speculation that he is trying to fool people into thinking he’s a centrist in advance for a run for the White House in 2024.
Newsom entered office in 2019 as one of America’s most extreme governors, especially with his radical, anti-business climate-change campaign, which included happily pushing the goal to phase out gas-powered cars and mandate all new cars in California be zero-emission by 2035.
Thanks to his policies, Newsom has presided over a homelessness crisis that has exploded and a historically unprecedented wave of people and businesses moving out of the state.
But nearly everyone knows he has greater ambitions.
Still, in November of last year, Newsom stepped up early to count himself out of the 2024 race for president by insisting that he had no intention of challenging Biden in the 2024 Democrat primaries.
Playing the part of the good Democrat foot soldier, Newsom insisted that he has been up front with party leaders that he isn’t interested in challenging Biden.
“I’ve told everyone in the White House, from the chief of staff to the first lady,” he exclaimed at the time. And as far as he was concerned, he was “all in” for Biden/Harris 2024.
He also spent several months going on the road delivering broadside attacks on Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in an effort to damage DeSantis as much as possible ahead of the 2024 election season.
Despite all his cheerleading for Biden, though, many suspect he is setting himself up to be the consensus candidate when Joe Biden inevitably tumbles and is removed from the Democrat ticket.
In preparation, the leftist governor has been doling out a series of vetoes on some of his legislature’s more left-wing bills, likely trying to make himself look more centrist and less left-wing so he can jump into the race for 2024.
One recent veto, for instance, seemed to go right against his long advocacy for the radical transgender agenda when he vetoed a bill that would have allowed the state to remove children from foster parents who refuse to sign pledges affirming the transgender agenda.
In his veto statement, Newsom said that even though he shares a “deep commitment to advancing the rights of transgender Californians,” he could not sign the bill, the Associated Press reported.
In another case, Newsom vetoed a bill that would have mandated that the state’s high schools hand out free condoms to kids.
Newsom characterized that veto as a cost-saving measure, saying that he hopes the legislature will “remain disciplined when considering bills with significant fiscal implications, such as this measure.”
Speaking of financial implications, Newsom also angered union supporters by vetoing a bill that would have allowed union members to receive unemployment benefits while on strike.
“Now is not the time to increase costs or incur this sizable debt,” he wrote.
Then he vetoed a bill that would have made psychedelic mushrooms legal in the state, even though it was supported by veterans who claimed using the drug could help with PTSD, according to KXTV Sacramento.
He also vetoed a bill that would have made California the first state in the country to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a bill that would have given legal protections to the Dalit class of lower-caste workers from India, many of whom are Muslim.
With moves like this, some have begun wondering whether Newsom is trying to set himself up to knock down the “extreme left-wing” label he has worked so hard to earn thus far in his political career, all because he is eyeing the White House and will need to seem less radical to millions of American voters to achieve that goal. And if 2024 doesn’t pan out, then he is also set up for 2028.
The question remains: how many will he be able to fool with this gambit?
via westernjournal
