Leading Republican California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder on Friday said national Democrats and their donors who are meddling in the special recall election set for September 14 have other motives than merely saving Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom.
Speaking to nationally syndicated conservative radio host Mark Levin, Elder said many of those power players are focused on preventing the GOP from taking control of the U.S. Senate. The chamber is equally divided between the two parties with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie-breaking vote.
VP Harris is expected to campaign with Newsom in the Bay Area on Wednesday. The governor said earlier this week that President Joe Biden “will be out here soon” to stump for him. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was featured on a television ad to “stop the Republican recall.” A columnist for the left-leaning Los Angeles Times recently “warned” readers that “Larry Elder is the Black face of white supremacy.” And Newsom’s political action committee has received big bucks from billionaire Democratic megadonors like Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings, New York-based progressive philanthropist George Soros, and organized labor.
“All of these people are scared to death about one big thing,” said Elder. “They couldn’t care less about Gavin Newsom. They care about the 50-50 split in the Senate in Washington D.C.”
Elder went on to single out California’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, who, at 88-years-old, is the eldest member of the U.S. Senate. The New Yorker published an article in December that addressed “rumors of her cognitive decline,” citing sources who claimed “her short-term memory has grown so poor that she often forgets she has been briefed on a topic.” Feinstein won’t be up for re-election until 2024, would be 91 if re-elected, and 97 if she served out that full six-year term.
“God forbid Governor Elder should replace Dianne Feinstein, that nobody has seen in weeks, and I’m told that she’s in worse mental condition than Joe Biden,” Elder told Levin on Friday. “They are afraid that I’m going to replace her with a Republican, which I most certainly would do. And that would be an earthquake in Washington, D.C.”
Partial transcript as follows:
LEVIN: Wow. I hadn’t thought about that. And I haven’t thought about the fact that we haven’t seen her either.
ELDER: No.
LEVIN: And I’m sure the media that are trying to destroy you are busy trying to find her, right?
ELDER: Oh sure, just like they’re trying to find Hunter Biden. They’re scared to death that a blue state like California, God forbid that they should elect a common-sense, conservative Republican who makes an appreciable difference in their lives. They don’t want me to improve the situation. They don’t want me to bring down the cost of living. They don’t want me to do something about homelessness. They don’t want me to give people in the inner-city a choice so that they can get a competent education for their kids. God forbid I should make things better, and then all of the sudden people will rethink their attitude toward Republicans and rethink their attitude toward Democrats, and that’s why they’re so scared.
Elder’s campaign says it has raised more than $13 million since he declared his candidacy on July 12, 2021. Contributions to individual candidates are capped at $32,400 per election.
However, Newsom’s anti-recall committee has no donation limits under state rules.
According to The Hill, “Newsom’s campaign had raised $46 million through the end of July, and recent filings with the secretary of state’s office show it has raised at least another $17 million (in August).”
The September 14 ballot will ask California voters two questions. First, voters will decide whether Newsom should be recalled. Then, the second question asks who should replace Newsom if he is recalled. If more than 50% choose to recall Newsom on question one, then the top vote-getter on the second question would become the new governor.
The latest poll by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California released on Thursday shows 58% of likely voters oppose recalling Newsom, while 39% support ousting him from office.
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