Gov. Newsom seemed to send shockwaves through the floundering Democrat Party when he agreed with conservative leader Charlie Kirk that boys don't belong in girls' sports.
Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, was interviewed by the California Democrat in a friendly back-and-forth discussion on Newsom’s brand-new “This is Gavin Newsom” podcast.
“You, right now,” Kirk said, “should come out and be like, ‘You know what? The young man who’s about to win the state championship in the long jump in female sports—that shouldn’t happen. You, as the governor, should step out and say no,” Kirk said.
“Well, I think it’s an issue of fairness,” Newsom responded. “I completely agree with you on that. That’s easy to call out, the unfairness of that.”
What sounded like a common-sense comment to many about female athletics is a scandalous betrayal in the Democratic Party, which is why Newsom’s comment immediately went viral.
“Trans people and LGBTQ+ people are under attack,” Alex Lee, a California assemblyman, said of Newsom’s comment in an X post.
Newsom’s comment also caused problems for Democrats on the weekend talk shows. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) told Fox News Sunday he was “perplexed” by it, and Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) dodged the issue on Meet the Press.
Mirroring the opinion of many observers, Pacific Justice Institute attorney Brad Dacus tells AFN the state’s governor is making a political calculation rather than taking a moral stand.
“Governor Gavin Newsom, by making this major shift in his position regarding boys competing in girls' sports,” Dacus warns, “has effectively just announced his run for the presidency of 2028.”
Newsom, who is term-limited, flirted with jumping into the 2024 presidential race last year but stayed out.
Rather than Newsom “seeing the light” on the issue, Dacus adds, the governor is eyeing the White House.
A record-breaking triple jump
Steve McConkey, who leads sports ministry 4Winds USA, is a vocal critic of transgender athletes. He tells AFN that Newsom is likely aware of a controversy in his own state where a male track star demolished his female competitors in the triple jump recently.
“His triple jump is eight feet longer and very good distances,” McConkey says of AB Hernandez, the male athlete.
A related story by The New York Post said Hernandez, a high school junior, won with a 40-foot jump compared to a 32-foot jump by the runner-up, a female. Hernandez also took first place in the high jump and the long jump, the article said.
High school track-and-field competitions are very popular in California, McConkey advises, so he suspects the record-making scores are waking up people to a male athlete’s unfair advantage.
As far as Gov. Newsom’s surprising comment, McConkey is hopeful it is a sign that people are “starting to get it.”
Regarding the Governor’s comment, Dacus says Gov. Newsom should be judged on the liberal bills he has championed, and “happily” signed into law, rather than on one podcast comment.
Kirk not fooled by political calculation
In a Fox News interview after the podcast, Kirk told show host Sean Hannity he saw Newsom's shift as a political move looking into the future.
"I think he wants to be president, Sean, more than anything else on the planet," Kirk said. "I think you can agree he has more political ambition than almost anybody in the Democrat Party."
Newsom also realizes the culture has shifted to the right, Kirk observed, so his decision to shift his view and anger his own party shows the men-vs-women sports issue is a winning one for Republicans and conservatives.
