California Governor Gavin Newsom may want to be president, but according to one report on Monday, it was a facetious quip when he actually said it out loud.
POLITICO covered remarks by Newsom about his weekend visit to Israel as it wages war on Hamas in Gaza following attacks by the terrorist group on Israel on October 7 that killed an estimated 1,400-plus people.
The news outlet noted that Newsom, who was speaking in Hong Kong, stated that his stop in Israel was “limited in scope” when asked if he broached the issue of a ceasefire with Israeli leaders while he was in the country. The report went on: “‘I wish I was president of the United States,’ he said sarcastically, before clarifying that he was joking. ‘I could start doing all those things.'”
Despite the “joking” qualifier, some commenters on social media took the statement as a sign that he is eyeing the White House even as the California governor himself insists that he is deferring to President Joe Biden’s re-election bid in 2024.
“Well that’s a quiet part out loud moment,” GOP communicator Matt Whitlock said in a post to X. “He said the quiet part out loud,” California GOP Chairwoman Jessica Millan Patterson similarly observed. “FIGHT,” added radio show host and former NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch.
Just last month, Newsom said he is not running for president after he agreed to have a debate with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination. “The answer is no,” Newsom said, according to CNN. “No ambiguity.”
Still, Newsom has established himself as a leading surrogate for Biden and even attended the second Republican presidential debate in California to counter the messaging of the GOP candidates.
Though Biden has declared that he is running for a second term with Vice President Kamala Harris, some of his supporters and others have called on him to consider dropping out amid low approval numbers, unfavorable polling in a hypothetical rematch against former President Donald Trump, and concerns about his fitness to continue serving as commander in chief at the age of 80.
Newsom told NBC last month that he thinks Democrats “need to move past” their worries about Biden and exclaimed “of course not” when asked if he could imagine running against Harris.