Democratic California Governor Gavin Newsom has yet to contact the family of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/congress-to-spotlight-illegal-immigrant-trucking-crashes-in-upcoming-hearing">Dalilah Coleman</a>, 7, who suffered life-altering injuries at the hands of an illegal immigrant truck driver who received his license from the Golden State, the young girl&#8217;s father, Marcus Coleman, told The Daily Wire.
Indian illegal immigrant Partap Singh allegedly caused the multi-car pileup while driving an 18-wheeler with a California commercial driver&#8217;s license in June 2024, causing significant injuries to Dalilah. The young girl, who was 5 years old at the time of the crash, suffered a traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and developmental delay.
She currently cannot eat orally and is learning to walk again. She also has the &#8220;mentality of an 18 to 24 month old&#8221; as a result of her injuries, according to Marcus.
Dalilah&#8217;s father has repeatedly said that Newsom hasn&#8217;t contacted the family. He also said he&#8217;s lost hope and is &#8220;not holding&#8221; his &#8220;breath&#8221; anymore after making his own attempts to contact their office.
Marcus, who happens to be a truck driver himself, recently shared his frustrations with Newsom’s silence with The Daily Wire.
“How do you not see Dalilah? How do you allow politics to blind you from a five-year-old girl at the time whose life is forever changed, and your only answer is it’s the federal government,” Marcus said.
Newsom&#8217;s office told The Daily Wire on February 25 that they had &#8220;no record of outreach from the Coleman family,&#8221; adding &#8220;we would welcome the opportunity to connect them to available state resources.&#8221; With Marcus&#8217;s blessing, The Daily Wire shared his number with their office, which confirmed receipt and said it was &#8220;much appreciated.&#8221;
“What happened to Dalilah is heartbreaking, and we commend her family for turning their grief into advocacy,” Newsom spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo said at the time.
Still, Marcus says he hasn&#8217;t heard anything as of publication.
President Donald Trump honored Dalilah and Marcus as guests to his State of the Union speech last month to highlight the surge in illegal immigrant trucking crashes.
“We will take care of this problem,” Trump said during the address. “We’re going to take care of this problem. We are not playing games. Dalilah — Dalilah Coleman was only 5 years old in June 2024 when an 18-wheel tractor-trailer plowed into her stopped car, traveling at 60 miles an hour or more. The driver was an illegal alien let in by Joe Biden and given a commercial driver’s license by open borders, politicians, and California. Doctors said Dalilah would never be able to walk or talk, have a good life.&#8221;
“She wouldn’t even be able to eat again. But against all odds, she is now in the first grade, learning to walk, and she is here this evening with her dad, Marcus, a fantastic man. Dalilah, please, you are a great inspiration. Please stand up. Thank you, Dalilah,” Trump said.
The Trump administration is currently withholding roughly $160 million in federal funds from Newsom’s California “for failing to cancel over 17,000 illegally issued” commercial driver’s licenses “by the agreed-upon deadline of January 5, 2026.”
Newsom has blamed the federal government for handing illegal immigrants the work permits used to obtain the trucking licenses.
Republican Indiana Senator Jim Banks recently introduced &#8220;The Dalilah Law&#8221; to ensure illegal immigrants lose their commercial driver’s licenses and that the issuance of new licenses has stricter requirements.

Untitled design – 2026-03-12T091426.162

Illegal Immigrant Trucker Wrecked A Little Girl’s Life. Newsom Won’t Even Take Her Father’s Calls.

Newsom Has Yet To Contact Family Of Young Girl Injured By Illegal Immigrant Trucker In California, F

California

Gavin Newsom

illegal immigrant

Katie Couric made history when she became the first woman to solo-host a primetime news program — The CBS Evening News — but now she&#8217;s making news by asking Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on her podcast whether he&#8217;s too pretty for national politics.
Couric hosted the governor on a recent episode of her &#8220;Next Question&#8221; podcast, and while she did ask him about a number of more serious policy positions, she also asked whether he was too handsome to be taken seriously.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Couric: Do you have a Zoolander problem? Are you just ridiculously good looking as Vogue said? What do you do about that?
Newsom: You don’t do anything about it…It’s just who I am.
Good. Lord. <a href="https://t.co/aFmvpDLlaa">pic.twitter.com/aFmvpDLlaa</a>
— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) <a href="https://twitter.com/WesternLensman/status/2029623877865800188?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 5, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Do you have a &#8216;Zoolander&#8217; problem?&#8221; Couric asked, laughing.
&#8220;Oh, Jesus,&#8221; Newsom laughed. &#8220;&#8216;Zoolander.'&#8221;
&#8220;Are you just ridiculously good-looking as Vogue said? No, seriously, what do you do about that?&#8221; Couric asked.
&#8220;You don’t do anything about it,&#8221; Newsom replied. &#8220;Because if you&#8217;re going to do something about it then you&#8217;re bullsh*tting people. You know what? I am who I am. It&#8217;s fine. You don&#8217;t have to like me. Or maybe you like a slick person, I don&#8217;t know. Whatever, it&#8217;s okay. If I start showing up —&#8221;
&#8220;I brought that up because you talked about being authentic,&#8221; Couric interrupted. &#8220;And I think it sometimes works against you.&#8221;
&#8220;Yeah, it’s just who I am. It&#8217;s just who I am,&#8221; Newsom repeated.
Couric capitalized on that moment to tease the interview, cutting it into the introduction for the podcast episode. Her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1E-mlna_XVk&amp;t=1s">YouTube</a> caption began, &#8220;California Governor Gavin Newsom has spent his career outrunning a public image that reduces him to a caricature—slick, ambitious, and impossibly polished.&#8221;
Couric&#8217;s line of questioning follows a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/vogue-puff-piece-on-gavin-newsom-delivers-overdose-of-cringe">fawning profile</a> from Vogue&#8217;s Spring 2026 issue that opened with the following statement: &#8220;Let’s get this out of the way: He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address.&#8221;
The piece, authored by Maya Singer, continued, &#8220;It must drive Trump nuts. Newsom: lithe, ardent, energetic, a glimmer of optimism in his eye; Kennedy-esque. Add to that his stunning wife and four adorable kids, and the executive strut of a self-made millionaire who has spent the past seven years at the helm of a state big, complex, and rich enough to be a nation of its own.&#8221;
Newsom, who term-limits out at the end of this year as California governor, is widely expected to run for president in 2028.

Governor Newsom And San Francisco Mayor Lurie Announce New Funding For Homelessness And Mental Health Ffforts In The City

Feminist Hero Katie Couric Asks Gavin Newsom If He’s Too Hot To Be President In Hard-Hitting Interview

2028 presidential election

CBS Evening News

Katie Couric

Media

Politics

There&#8217;s a coalition of people who are uniting to take down the United States.
These people are cowards, plus liars, plus people who despise America.
It&#8217;s a coalition of scavengers.
There are the cowards who mouth platitudes about how much they really didn&#8217;t like the Ayatollah, but then they spend their days talking about how the United States couldn&#8217;t and shouldn&#8217;t ever do anything about that.
There are the liars who literally craft stories out of nothing in order to undermine America.
And finally, there are the actual American haters who are often both cowards and liars, and really, really just despise America and her pursuit of our national interests in the world.
That coalition is now coming together, but it&#8217;s not going to win because President Trump is going to win this war.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2380-the-ben-shapiro-show?elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowHeadline=Recent+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
Let&#8217;s start with the cowards. These are the people who pretend they didn&#8217;t like the Ayatollah very much, but they&#8217;re really, really upset when anyone takes action. So, for example, they&#8217;re really, really mad that international law — the precious gewgaw of the pseudo-intellectuals — has somehow been violated.
Yes. If we don&#8217;t have Myanmar&#8217;s approval of a military strike on the ayatollahs or China&#8217;s approval — and if there is one country we need approval from, it is China, currently oppressing a billion people — or Russia —which is currently engaged in an aggressive war of conquest in Ukraine while throwing dissenters out of random third-story balconies at hotels — we need Russia&#8217;s approval?
That&#8217;s international law. And if we don&#8217;t have their approval, the mullahs must remain immune.
Here is the pathetic Mark Carney <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NBFuFwPrdpY">of Canada:</a>
<blockquote>The current conflict is another example of the failure of the international order. Despite decades of UN Security Council resolutions, the tireless work of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the succession of sanctions and diplomatic frameworks. Iran&#8217;s nuclear threat remains. And now the United States and Israel have acted without engaging the United Nations or consulting allies, including Canada.</blockquote>
Who gives a sh*t? Really? You guys can’t even win a hockey match.
My favorite part of that is when Carney suggests the IAEA has been thwarted for decades, and U.N. resolutions have been ignored for decades, and now the United States and Israel won&#8217;t even go to the U.N.
He just said why those organizations are trash and do nothing. But oh, my gosh, we didn’t turn to Canada with its vast military prowess. Do we need to drop maple syrup on the Iranians?
New York City’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, who has been happy to express support for terror supporters throughout his entire career, is now hiding behind international law as cover for his consistent opposition to Western strength.
Asked if Iran was “better off without the Ayatollah,” he <a href="https://x.com/Acyn/status/2028907502436532281?s=20">answered</a>:
<blockquote>I&#8217;ve said before that the Iranian government has engaged in systematic repression of its own people, even killing thousands of Iranians who were seeking to express the most basic forms of dissent earlier this year. It is a brutal government. And I&#8217;ve also said that while I may be a young mayor, I am old enough to remember the devastating consequences of our country pursuing a war with the intent of regime change in that very same region, not that many years ago.</blockquote>
The answer should be, &#8220;Yes.&#8221; 
Even if you have questions about what comes next, the answer should be yes. Yes, Iran is better off without Ayatollah Khamenei. But according to Mamdani, the important thing is saying that the ayatollah is really bad — but the minute anybody does anything, that is so much worse. We have to make sure that Khamenei stays in place because, after all, “the Iraq war.”
This Iraq War syndrome nonsense that has been promoted by the Left and then the horseshoe Right together, that every war is Iraq, every single intervention is Iraq, is ahistorical and absurd and tripe.
In 2015-2016, candidate Donald Trump ran on the platform that the Iraq war was bad — which was a controversial opinion inside the Republican Party at the time. The idea that he is now going to engage in a new, long-lasting occupation — not the first three weeks of the Iraq War, where the United States kicked the living hell out of Saddam Hussein and ended his regime, but what came after that, is ludicrous.
By the way, the first three weeks of the Iraq War were, by every available metric, a win for the United States. It was what came after that became problematic.
The argument of the cowards and liars is that Trump is going to engage in Bush-style nation-building in Iran.
Then there are the cowards who slander Israel to somehow imply that Israel is the bad guy in the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Take Gavin Newsom, who is absolutely slimy. As I said before, the man takes more positions on politics than the Kama Sutra. This is the same guy who, in an interview with me, freely admitted that Israel had not committed genocide in Gaza. Last night, however, he went on with the “Pod Save America” bros, knowing he had to please their Israel-hating asses.
Thus, he immediately started <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/gavin-newsom-israel-apartheid-state-1236521231/">talking about</a> how Israel is an apartheid state.
False.
20% of the Israeli population is Arab Muslim. They&#8217;re on the Supreme Court. They are in the medical system. A huge percentage of Israeli doctors are Arab Muslims. They&#8217;re in every area of Israeli society.
How can it be apartheid for Israel to have delegated certain parts of land to, for example, the Palestinian Authority, a terror-supporting group?
But Gavin Newsom knows he has to mouth these platitudes to his far-Left friends if he wants the nomination, because the Democratic Party — as Senator John Fetterman said yesterday on my show — is moving dramatically away from Israel.
Here&#8217;s Gavin Newsom <a href="https://x.com/clashreport/status/2029085070321938865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2029085070321938865%7Ctwgr%5E4fb64ae5ce1adc6ac7ef128a0ea3c54c4dfb046a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hollywoodreporter.com%2Fnews%2Fpolitics-news%2Fgavin-newsom-israel-apartheid-state-1236521231%2F">telling lies</a> and being a coward, speaking of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.
<blockquote>He&#8217;s got his own domestic issues. He&#8217;s trying to stay out of jail. He&#8217;s got an election coming up. He&#8217;s potentially on the ropes. He&#8217;s got folks, the hard line, that want to annex the West or the West Bank. I mean, (Thomas) Friedman and others are talking about it, appropriate, sort of an apartheid state. They couldn&#8217;t even, I mean, we&#8217;re talking about regime change. For two years, they haven&#8217;t even been able to solve the Hamas question.</blockquote>
Asked about rethinking our military support for Israel. He replied, “It breaks my heart, because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don&#8217;t think you have a choice. But that consideration, I mean to say this is in America&#8217;s interest at a time when affordability crisis levels, where you had an administration literally got elected, saying this is exactly the opposite of what they would ever consider doing. The fact that we are in this now regional war, all these proxies.”
He is a coward and a liar.
The fact of the matter is that blaming the attack on Iran on Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, is a lie. There&#8217;s complete solidarity in Israel from Left to Right on what Israel is doing right now. From Yair Lapid, who is on the Left, to Naftali Bennett, the chief rival to Netanyahu, to Yair Golan on the far, far, far Left, everyone agrees on this.
But when you are a coward, and you&#8217;re afraid of your own party, you have to start lying.
And then there are the actual liars, the people making actual stories up out of nothing. Stories they know aren&#8217;t true, but they push them anyway. The catastrophists aren&#8217;t actually worried about World War III or a long-standing boots on the ground occupation, but try to lie to Americans that they are.
Thus, Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who has had his own shady history with the truth when it comes to his purported military service, said <a href="https://x.com/yashar/status/2028975539214782618">he&#8217;s worried</a> that we&#8217;re going to put boots on the ground.
Does he mean that there might be special operators on the ground? Because if we&#8217;re talking about special operators on the ground, welcome to the real world, where the United States has special operators on the ground all over the world, everywhere from Asia to Africa and the Middle East.
But that&#8217;s not what he was implying. He was implying a gigantic airlift of hundreds of thousands of troops, a gigantic boots on the ground footprint. It&#8217;s a lie. It is untrue.
It&#8217;s astonishing to watch this while he is wearing the American flag/Ukraine flag pin on his lapel.
“I am more fearful than ever after this briefing that we may be putting boots on the ground, and that the troops from the United States may be necessary to accomplish the objectives that the administration seems to have, but I also am no more clear on what the priorities are going to be given this regime going forward,” he <a href="https://x.com/yashar/status/2028975539214782618">hyperventilated</a>.
These are lies. It&#8217;s not true.
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), directly from the Native American reservation, from her teepee, says that <a href="https://youtu.be/DxrTqQEZ69s">there is no plan</a>.
And she would know because, after all, she is a military leader and expert.
“I just left a classified briefing on Iran,” she huffed. “And here&#8217;s what I can say: It is so much worse than you thought. The Trump administration has no plan in Iran. This illegal war is based on lies and it was launched without any imminent threat to our nation. Donald Trump still hasn&#8217;t given us a single clear reason for this war, and he seems to have no plan for how to end it either. Like a lot of you, I am really angry. I am angry at what Donald Trump is doing, and I feel grief for those already killed in this unnecessary conflict. And I will keep doing everything I can to fight to end this war.” 
What a liar she is. What an absolute liar. President Trump hasn&#8217;t explained it? What&#8217;s been happening for the past 50 years?
This notion that no one knows why, that what has happened is some mystery out of the blue?
No one believes that.
The idea that there&#8217;s no plan here is horsesh*t. There is a plan here, and the military is laying it out, but the liars are going to lie.
Finally, there are the American haters. There are a lot of people who live in America who truly hate America.
There&#8217;s an easy way to tell who hates America.
If you call America a terrorist organization for killing one of the world&#8217;s most evil dictators, for example, I know you hate America.
If you say that the United States is the worst terror organization in the world, you don&#8217;t like America, period, because that is such an overt lie.
That is such a moral calumny that there can only be one explanation, and it is your deep and abiding hatred for America&#8217;s role in the world.
To make that argument, you have to deliberately obscure the difference between actual terrorists who deliberately seek to kill innocent people and nation states seeking to avoid civilian casualties, often while fighting those actual terrorists.
That is the point for people who hate America: To reduce America to the level of its enemies in order to uphold those enemies. 
You also hate America if you claim that the president of the United States is merely a tool of foreign interests without any evidence whatsoever. You are promoting lies directly mirroring those of the Iranian terrorist government, in direct contravention of truth and of the Trump administration&#8217;s own words.
President Trump was asked directly whether it was Israel that was leading him around. He <a href="https://x.com/realDailyWire/status/2028877941808005217">fired back</a>, “I might have forced their hand. You see, we were having negotiations with these lunatics, and it was my opinion that they were going to attack first. They were going to attack if we didn&#8217;t do it, they were going to attack first. I felt strongly about that. And we had great negotiators, great people, people that do this very successfully and have done it all their lives, very successful. And, based on the way the negotiation was going, I think they were going to attack first.”
Another game that the Coalition of Scavengers is playing here with regard to President Trump is that what he&#8217;s doing right now is wildly unpopular with the American people.
According to CBS News, 85% of Republicans support the president&#8217;s strikes on Iran. 
According to Fox News, 84% of Republicans support the strikes on Iran. 
According to The Washington Post, 81% of Republicans support the strike on Iran. 
According to Reuters/Ipsos, 82% of Republicans support the strikes on Iran.
So, it doesn&#8217;t sound like much of a split inside the Republican Party.
Military households approve of the current action against Iran by a 20-point margin, 60-40. One of the great ironies of all the people on the Left and the horseshoe Right who claim to speak in the name of the military is that they very rarely actually talk to people who are in the military. The military is quite conservative and hawkish when it comes to actual effectuating of American foreign policy.
The lesson of all this?
Be a lion, not a scavenger.

Lions

Cowards, Liars, And The Anti-American Alliance

Ben Shapiro

Conservatives

Democrats

Elizabeth Warren

Iran

Israel

Leftists

podcasts

Richard Blumenthal

Zohran Mamdani

In a vicious attack on President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the U.S.-Israel relationship, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom called for rethinking the American support for Israel, vilified Israel as an apartheid state, and ripped into Trump.
Speaking with former Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor during an event to promote his autobiography, “Young Man in a Hurry,” Newsom was asked whether Democrats should reconsider U.S. military aid to Israel in light of Netanyahu&#8217;s leadership.
“Well, he&#8217;s making that easy right now,” Newsom began, as he started maligning Netanyahu. “The issue of Bibi is interesting. Because he&#8217;s got his own domestic issues. He&#8217;s trying to stay out of jail. He&#8217;s got an election coming up. He&#8217;s potentially on the ropes. He&#8217;s got folks, the hard line, that want to annex the West Bank.”
Newsom then quoted the infamously anti-Netanyahu New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to traduce Israel with the leftist false claim of Israel moving toward &#8220;an apartheid state,&#8221; adding, &#8220;For two years, they haven&#8217;t even been able to solve the Hamas question in Israel.”
He turned to implying that Trump attacked Iran because of Israel.
“In so many ways, that influence in the context of the conversation of where Trump ultimately landed on this is pretty damn self-evident,&#8221; said Newsom. &#8220;When you bring two aircraft carriers out there and you assemble the kind of military force that Trump did over the last few weeks, it didn&#8217;t surprise me ultimately that they moved that direction.”
The governor was asked, “Do you think, looking down the road, that the United States should consider, maybe, you know, rethinking our military support for Israel?”
Newsom then offered his crocodile tears: “It breaks my heart because the current leadership in Israel is walking us down that path where I don&#8217;t think you have a choice but that consideration.&#8221;
He also referenced what he characterized as &#8220;the grift and the corruption&#8221; connected to broader regional dynamics, naming members of the Trump family, including the president&#8217;s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
“The fact that we are in this now, a regional war. All these proxies and all the grift and the corruption that also marks a huge part of this,” he said. “And that&#8217;s a real conversation we need to have, this Board of Peace. In the piece that the Witkoff family is getting, in the piece that Kushner is getting, in the peace that Trump Jr. is getting.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
NEW 
Tonight, at a book event in Los Angeles, Governor Gavin Newsom said that the United States is being pushed by Israel into a position where it may have to reconsider military support.
Newsom said that those who say Israel is an apartheid state are doing so “appropriately.”… <a href="https://t.co/6UUBEH7hYD">pic.twitter.com/6UUBEH7hYD</a>
&mdash; Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) <a href="https://twitter.com/yashar/status/2029104738818789739?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 4, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Governor Newsom blasts Trump over strikes on Iran

‘APARTHEID STATE’: Newsom Trashes Israel, Vilifies Netanyahu, Claims Trump Strikes Driven By ‘Grift’

Apartheid

Benjamin Netanyahu

Donald Trump

California Democrats are warning their own candidates that a crowded gubernatorial primary could create an unexpected risk in the state&#8217;s top-two election system.
In a <a href="https://cadem.org/open-letter-to-the-democratic-candidates-for-governor/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to the wide pool of Democrats seeking to replace term-limited Gov. Gavin Newsom, California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks, a former union boss, urged candidates to assess whether they have a shot at advancing to the general election.
Under California&#8217;s &#8220;jungle primary&#8221; system in June, all candidates appear on the same ballot, and the top two vote-getters advance to the general election in November regardless of party. Some Democrats fear vote-splitting among their candidates could allow two Republicans to advance to the general election. There are more than a dozen Democrats in the race, including Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Rep. Katie Porter, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer. Newsom has not publicly endorsed anyone.
Meanwhile, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and former Fox News host Steve Hilton are considered the leading Republicans in the race. Some polls have shown Bianco and Hilton within striking distance of the top two, while others suggest both could advance if Democratic support fragments.
“Despite the ongoing chatter, the likelihood of two Republicans effectively ‘locking out’ California Democrats from the contest for Governor in the General Election is relatively low,” Hicks wrote. “However, while it is implausible, it is not impossible.”
Hicks called on the Democratic candidates to &#8220;honestly assess the viability of their candidacy,” suggesting those without a viable path of finishing in the top two consider dropping out &#8220;on or before April 15th.&#8221;
Hicks further added that if Republicans successfully lock out the Democrats, it could lead to “depressed Democratic turnout” and damage the party’s chances in other critical down-ballot races.
“The result would present a real risk to winning the congressional seats required and imperil Democrats’ chances to retake the House, cut Donald Trump’s term in half, and spare our Nation from the pain many have endured since January 2025. We simply can’t let that happen,” he wrote.
The primary is scheduled for June 2.
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrats-keep-jumping-into-california-gov-race-it-might-accidentally-boost-republicans">Democrats Keep Jumping Into California Gov Race. It Might Accidentally Boost Republicans.</a>

Rusty Hicks

California Dem Chair Warns Party Could Be Shut Out Of Governor’s Race

2026 election

Elections

Eric Swalwell

Kamala Harris

The Supreme Court sided with a group of parents challenging a California policy that allowed schools to keep kids&#8217; so-called gender transitions a secret.
In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the justices said that California policies that block schools from notifying parents about their child’s desire to change their sex and be referred to by incorrect pronouns likely violate their religious liberty. The ruling comes after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a lower court’s ruling siding with parents challenging California’s policies.
“We conclude that the parents who seek religious exemptions are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim,” the Supreme Court majority <a href="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63d954d4e4ad424df7819d46/69a61b347a7b680a9027a546_25A810.pdf">wrote</a>. “The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California’s policies violate those beliefs.”
The California Department of Education has argued that the challenge should be considered moot because they claim that a <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20240113000622/https://www.cde.ca.gov/re/di/eo/faqs.asp">frequently-asked-questions</a> page posted by the department has been edited to show that they do not mandate parental exclusion, and so there is no more cause for complaint. The FAQ page included a line that said, “with rare exceptions, schools are required to respect the limitations that a student places on the disclosure of their transgender status, including not sharing that information with the student’s parents.”
While that guidance was deleted, policies that kept parents in the dark about their children were still promoted in statewide teacher trainings, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-officials-lied-about-secret-gender-transitions-in-schools-documents-show">according</a> to documents uncovered by the Thomas More Society.
Policies prohibiting local school districts from passing measures requiring teachers to inform parents about a student’s identity were signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
“Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies conceal that information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning during school hours. These policies likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” the majority wrote.
They added that “the intrusion on parents’ free exercise rights here—unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition—is greater than the introduction of LGBTQ storybooks we considered sufficient to trigger strict scrutiny in Mahmoud.”
Mahmoud was a case from last year where the court ruled that a Maryland county violated the rights of parents who wanted to opt their kids out of instruction related to LGBT content.
Paul Jonna, special counsel at the Thomas More Society and partner at LiMandri and Jonna LLP, said the ruling was a major victory for parents.
“This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America,” she said. “The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back. The Court’s landmark reaffirmation of substantive due process, its vindication of religious liberty, and its approval of class-wide relief together set a historic precedent that will dismantle secret gender transition policies across the country.”
The court&#8217;s liberal justices — Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — wanted to block the parents’ challenge.

MixCollage-02-Mar-2026-06-37-PM-4583

Supreme Court Slaps Down California Policy On Gender-Confused Kids

Courts

Religious Liberty

Supreme Court

Transgender

U.S.

Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) admitted during a Wednesday interview that Vice President JD Vance &#8220;scares&#8221; him as the potential heir apparent to helm the Make America Great Again movement going into the 2028 presidential election.
Newsom voiced his concerns to former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on MS NOW, calling Secretary of State Marco Rubio &#8220;a complete fraud&#8221; and telling her that Vance, in particular, worried him &#8220;almost more than&#8221; President Donald Trump.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Marco Rubio is a complete fraud. But no one tops JD Vance. Talk about a guy who put a mask on his face and grew into it. Pathetic. <a href="https://t.co/fNbTEYJY4z">pic.twitter.com/fNbTEYJY4z</a>
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) <a href="https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/2026863309660492132?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 26, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;There are some people waiting in the wings in the MAGA world who would love to be the chosen ones of the Trump orbit,&#8221; Psaki began, adding, &#8220;JD Vance is one of them. Marco Rubio is one of them. Do you think they can carry on the MAGA flame here?&#8221;
&#8220;No. But Vance, for whatever reason, scares me,&#8221; Newsom volunteered.
&#8220;Why?&#8221; Psaki pressed.
&#8220;Almost more than Trump. I don’t know. I just — I mean, talk about a guy who put a mask on and his face grew into it,&#8221; Newsom said, complaining that Vance and Rubio — as well as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — had been &#8220;effective&#8221; critics of Trump before coming around to his way of thinking.
&#8220;What frauds, what phonies. But JD is a unique fraud and phony. And he’s a little more dangerous. And — and the folks around him, these are not folks that believe — I mean, listen to some of its biggest funders, the way they talk. There’s a nihilism to the way they talk about the world,&#8221; Newsom continued, adding, &#8220;I know these guys. I literally know them, not figuratively know them. Some of them are in the book, knew them back when.&#8221;
&#8220;So, again, I don’t want to be overly hyperbolic about this,&#8221; Newsom said, just as he pivoted to be more hyperbolic: &#8220;So [Trump&#8217;s] going to try to run this out until right after the end, until he can pick and choose who goes behind him. Or, God forbid, we don’t take back the House of Representatives, he may be on that ballot.&#8221;
Psaki agreed, &#8220;He&#8217;ll try.&#8221;
&#8220;I just wouldn’t put it past him,&#8221; said Newsom.
Trump has repeatedly said that he will not seek a third term in the White House, and has demurred when asked who he might want to see replace him. Touting the skills of both Vance and Rubio, Trump has only said that either would be a good choice.

Gavin Newsom Reveals The MAGA Successor Who Would Scare Him ‘Almost More Than Trump’

Gavin Newsom Admits He's Scared Of JD Vance

JD Vance

Jen Psaki

MAGA

The impending release of David Funston, a 64-year-old serial child molester described by a judge as “the monster parents fear the most,” has ignited a <a href="https://x.com/MattMahanSJ/status/2026740485822504994">firestorm</a> in California.
At the center of the conflict is a clash between the administration of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom and law enforcement officials, most notably Sacramento ounty Sheriff Jim Cooper and former District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert.
In 1999, Funston was convicted of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation from crimes committed in 1995 and 1996.
Under California’s “Elderly Parole Program,” certain inmates become eligible for parole after reaching age 50 and serving at least 20 years in prison. The elderly parole process was created by a federal three-judge panel in 2014.Before the policy was expanded in 2021, the threshold had been age 60 and 25 years served. AB 3234, which Newsom signed in 2020,  adjusted the age and time-served thresholds but did not create the program. Newsom&#8217;s office contends that the changes under Newsom were not material to Funston&#8217;s eligibility, and that under long-standing state law, individuals who have served 25 years are eligible for a parole hearing regardless.
Sheriff Cooper, himself 62, argued that the law is &#8220;dead wrong,&#8221; particularly for a predator who kidnapped and brutalized children as young as three.
Funston was originally sentenced to three consecutive life terms — a sentence effectively ensuring he would spend the remainder of his life in prison.
In the face of public outcry, Gov. Newsom’s office said the parole board operates as an &#8220;independent agency&#8221; under state law. It dismissed criticism tying Newsom to the decision as &#8220;MAGA MISINFORMATION,&#8221; adding that while Newsom requested a re-review of the case and personally disagreed with the outcome, he has &#8220;no authority to reverse&#8221; the board&#8217;s decision.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🤥MORE MAGA MISINFORMATION! 
The Board of Parole hearings is an independent agency and made this decision. The Governor asked for them to re-review its decision. The Governor doesn’t agree with the outcome and has NO authority to reverse this independent decision per state law. <a href="https://t.co/RuTMoYVrF5">https://t.co/RuTMoYVrF5</a>
&mdash; Governor Newsom Press Office (@GovPressOffice) <a href="https://twitter.com/GovPressOffice/status/2026416567328653764?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Schubert, the prosecutor who originally put Funston away and famously identified the Golden State Killer, issued a scathing takedown of the Governor’s defense.
Dismissing his claims of powerlessness as a “joke,” Schubert claimed that Newsom signed the state law allowing some inmates to be eligible for the &#8220;Elderly Parole Program&#8221; when they reach age 50 and appointed individuals on the board who deemed Funston suitable for early release.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
What a joke. Newsom not only SIGNED the law allowing early release at 50…he appointed these people. 
I prosecuted Funston. He earned his 3 life terms. 
No rational human being would think releasing him is a good idea. 
Yet…Newsom’s parole board did. Let that sink in. <a href="https://t.co/nSBZXSnfNw">https://t.co/nSBZXSnfNw</a>
&mdash; Schubert Strategies (@schubertstrat) <a href="https://twitter.com/schubertstrat/status/2026522171367944460?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 25, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Newsom&#8217;s office stated that the Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) is an independent body under state law. The decision in this case was made by the Board — not Newsom, that Newsom did not agree with the outcome and formally asked BPH to re-review its decision, and that under state law, because this is not a murder case, the Governor does not have the authority to reverse the Board’s determination.
The Funston case highlights a broader trend in California, including the passage of Propositions 47 and 57, which critics argue have eroded public safety by expanding parole eligibility and reducing penalties for some offenses.
Law enforcement officials argue that Sacramento already has a substantial number of registered sex offenders living in the community, and they contend that expanding eligibility for the state &#8220;Elderly Parole Program&#8221; puts public safety at risk. Cooper and Schubert have slammed what they describe as a system that gives violent offenders additional opportunities for early release — one that they argue comes at the expense of victims, who are left to live with the consequences.
Newsom&#8217;s office stated that the board grants parole in fewer than 12% of scheduled hearings; more than 97% of individuals released after a grant of parole successfully transitioned to the community without a new conviction within three years; 2.5% were convicted of a new misdemeanor or felony within three years; 0.5% were convicted of a new felony against a person within that same period, and that for individuals released through Elderly Parole specifically, the conviction rate for any crime within three years is 1.8%.
Of the 221 individuals paroled through the Elderly Parole Program in FY 2019-20, four were convicted of any crime within three years (one felony against a person and three misdemeanors not against persons),&#8221; Newsom&#8217;s office stated.
This article has been updated with comments from Governor Newsom&#8217;s office.

Day Three Of World Economic Forum (WEF) 2026

Newsom Says ‘Independent’ Board Granted Parole To Serial Child Molester. Former DA Rips Into Him.

Child Sex Abuse

Democratic California Governor has once again offered an excuse for not contacting the family of a young girl whose life has forever changed after she was victimized by an illegal immigrant truck driver with a commercial driver&#8217;s license from the Golden State.
President Donald Trump brought Dalilah Coleman, 7, and her father, Marcus, as guests to his State of the Union speech Tuesday night. Dalilah was severely injured in a multi-car pileup in 2024, allegedly caused by Indian illegal immigrant Partap Singh, who was behind the wheel of an 18-wheeler with a California-issued commercial driver&#8217;s license.
Dalilah suffered a traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy, and developmental delay. She currently cannot eat orally and has to learn to walk again.
Marcus has repeatedly stated that Newsom has failed to offer his sympathies directly.
Dalilah&#8217;s father, who happens to be a truck driver himself, shared his frustrations with Newsom&#8217;s silence.
&#8220;How do you not see Dalilah? How do you allow politics to blind you from a five-year-old girl at the time whose life is forever changed, and your only answer is it&#8217;s the federal government,&#8221; Marcus told The Daily Wire.
“What happened to Dalilah is heartbreaking, and we commend her family for turning their grief into advocacy,&#8221; Newsom spokesperson Diana Crofts-Pelayo told The Daily Wire.
&#8220;While our Constituent Affairs team has no record of outreach from the Coleman family, we would welcome the opportunity to connect them to available state resources,&#8221; Crofts-Pelayo said.
Newsom&#8217;s office failed to respond to a follow-up question asking if he regrets handing the illegal immigrant trucker a commercial driver&#8217;s license.
Singh has since been taken into federal immigration custody.
Trump recognized Dalilah and her father Tuesday night as he highlighted a surge in illegal immigrant trucking crashes and vowed to address the issue.
&#8220;We will take care of this problem,&#8221; Trump said Tuesday. &#8220;We’re going to take care of this problem. We are not playing games. Dalilah — Dalilah Coleman was only 5 years old in June 2024 when an 18-wheel tractor-trailer plowed into her stopped car, traveling at 60 miles an hour or more. The driver was an illegal alien let in by Joe Biden and given a commercial driver’s license by open borders, politicians, and California. Doctors said Dalilah would never be able to walk or talk, have a good life.&#8221;
&#8220;She wouldn’t even be able to eat again. But against all odds, she is now in the first grade, learning to walk, and she is here this evening with her dad, Marcus, a fantastic man. Dalilah, please, you are a great inspiration. Please stand up. Thank you, Dalilah,&#8221; Trump said.
The Department of Transportation has threatened to withhold federal funding from Democratic states issuing commercial driver&#8217;s licenses to illegal immigrants. The Trump administration is currently holding up roughly $160 million from Newsom&#8217;s California &#8220;for failing to cancel over 17,000 illegally issued&#8221; commercial driver&#8217;s licenses &#8220;by the agreed-upon deadline of January 5, 2026.&#8221;
Newsom has responded by blaming the federal government for issuing work permits to illegal immigrant truckers.
Trump also vowed to enact legislation dubbed &#8220;The Dalilah Law&#8221; to ban states from &#8220;granting commercial licenses to illegal aliens.&#8221; Republican Indiana Senator Jim Banks will formally introduce the bill Wednesday afternoon.
&#8220;Many, if not most, illegal aliens do not speak English and cannot read even the most basic road signs as to direction, speed, danger, or location,&#8221; Trump said.

Untitled design – 2026-02-25T112929.567

Newsom Makes Excuses As Father Pleads — Trump Spotlights His Child Injured By Illegal Trucker

State of the Union

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is not impressed with the Democratic bench going into the 2028 presidential election cycle — and he&#8217;s not holding back his overall assessment of the likely candidates: &#8220;a total clown car.&#8221;
Enten joined CNN anchor John Berman on Tuesday to discuss the likely candidates just as a new memoir from Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) — considered a heavy favorite to jump in the race — hit shelves, and his take was that Newsom was &#8220;flailing.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
CNN&#8217;s Harry Enten just ROASTED Gavin Newsom&#8217;s 2028 ambitions &#8220;He&#8217;s definitely flailing&#8221;:
&#8220;This is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side.&#8221;
&#8220;This is just a total clown car. It is a total mess. There is no clear front-runner at this particular point on… <a href="https://t.co/TYijTMGKWt">pic.twitter.com/TYijTMGKWt</a>
— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewKolvet/status/2026310210013286885?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 24, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Enten&#8217;s concern, as he broke down the numbers for Berman, was that there was no clear leader in the Democratic Party — and no one seemed poise for the kind of surge that would be necessary to push them to the front of the pack going into the 2028 primaries.
&#8220;Yeah, they’re all running and this is just a downright clown car at this point on the Democratic side,&#8221; Enten said, noting that the early polls showed Newsom (at 19%) just barely in the lead over former Vice President Kamala Harris (at 18%) and that his advantage was slim enough to be within the margin of error.
&#8220;Quite a weak number for [Harris], given that, of course, she was the nominee last time around,&#8221; Enten noted.
He went on to say that other likely contenders — such as former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who polled at 13% and 12%, respectively — were not doing any better.
&#8220;This is just a total clown car. It is a total mess. There is no clear frontrunner at this particular point on the Democratic side. Who the heck knows who the nominee is going to be in two years?&#8221; Enten added. &#8220;It was been a long time, this is very unusual for the Democratic side to not have a clear frontrunner at this point. You have to go all the way back, all the way back from when I wasn’t even in elementary school yet, not even in pre-K yet, to 1992, that was the last cycle in which there was no clear frontrunner at this point. Very unusual.&#8221;
The analyst then singled out Newsom, saying that in particular, he appeared to be losing ground — and popularity — even as he moves to market his memoir.
&#8220;It seems to me that Gavin Newsom is flailing a little bit, at least compared to where he was prior,” he said, explaining that betting markets were cooling off as far as Newsom was concerned. &#8220;Three months ago, according to the prediction market, look at that, it was a 37% chance, now it’s just at 28%. Down he goes. He’s definitely flailing a little bit.&#8221;

California Governor Gavin Newsom Interview

They’ve Lost CNN: Chief Data Guru Says 2028 Democrat Bench Is A ‘Total Clown Car’

They've Lost CNN: Chief Data Guru Says 2028 Democrat Bench Is A 'Total Clown Car'

Democrat

Harry Enten

Pete Buttigieg

President Donald Trump riled up California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday night, suggesting the Democrat decided to take his name out of consideration for the 2028 presidential election.
&#8220;Wow! Gavin Newscum just dropped out of the Presidential Race!!!&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116123225544591694">wrote</a> on Truth Social.
Newsom has not announced a decision on a 2028 presidential bid, but Trump&#8217;s post came as the governor faced criticism for comments he made about his SAT scores and dyslexia to a crowd in Atlanta during his book tour. The president&#8217;s Truth Social post caught Newsom&#8217;s attention, and the governor quickly responded through his personal and official social media accounts.
&#8220;WOW. THE PRESIDENT IS SUNDOWNING HARDER THAN USUAL TONIGHT!!! — GOVERNOR GCN,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/GovPressOffice/status/2026129785420742660">wrote</a> on the official account for Newsom&#8217;s press office, which regularly mocks Trump&#8217;s social media activity. &#8220;Sundowning&#8221; refers to symptoms that affect many Alzheimer&#8217;s patients, such as increased confusion and agitation that usually occur later in the day.
Newsom also joked about the president&#8217;s Truth Social post on his personal X account, <a href="https://x.com/GavinNewsom/status/2026130066019651698">writing</a>, &#8220;It’s on page 69 of my new book. Buy it here.&#8221;
Newsom was slammed on Monday after a clip of his book tour event in Atlanta went viral, showing the governor discussing his low SAT score with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens in front of a crowd of Democratic supporters.
“I’m like you. I’m not better than you,” Newsom said. “I’m a 960 SAT guy.”
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/friendly-fire?utm_campaign=dwplus&amp;utm_content=20260224_sotu_aa_desktop&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=banner">Watch the State of the Union with The Daily Wire! Live coverage from the nation&#8217;s capital begins at 7:45 ET.</a>
Conservatives accused Newsom of making the comment in an attempt to pander to black Americans in a city made up of a large black population. In 2024, the average SAT score for black students was 907, while white students scored an average of 1083, according to College Board data.
After making the comment, Newsom added, &#8220;I&#8217;m not trying to offend anyone and act all there if you got 940. But [I&#8217;m] literally a 960 SAT guy.&#8221;
Newsom raged against Fox News host Sean Hannity after Hannity said Newsom &#8220;thinks a 960 SAT score makes him &#8216;like&#8217; black Americans. Let that sink in.&#8221;
&#8220;You didn’t give a sh*t about the President of the United States of America posting an ape video of President Obama or calling African nations sh*tholes — but you’re going to call me racist for talking about my lifelong struggle with dyslexia?&#8221; Newsom shot back. &#8220;Spare me your fake f*cking outrage, Sean.&#8221;
Mayor Dickens defended Newsom after videos of his remark went viral on social media.
&#8220;Take it from someone who was actually in the chair asking the questions: context matters more than a headline,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/DVHpugCFGFT/?img_index=1">said</a>. &#8220;The conversation around his new book included him speaking about his own academic struggles, including not doing well on the SAT. That wasn’t an attack on anyone. It was a moment of vulnerability about his own journey.&#8221;
Dickens added that people in Atlanta were not offended by the governor&#8217;s comment.
&#8220;Let me be clear though. This is Atlanta. We don’t need anyone to tell us when to be offended. And history has shown&#8230; when we are, you’ll know,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If you want the full context, watch the full clip, read the book, and engage the complete conversation.&#8221;
Newsom is among the favorites to win the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. While he has not officially announced a presidential run, the governor appears to be testing the waters. Newsom launched a nationwide book tour last Saturday to discuss his new memoir with Americans, making his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-tennessee-gavin-newsom-sprints-to-the-far-left">first stop in Nashville</a>.
While in Nashville, Newsom echoed some rhetoric from the far-Left wing of the Democratic Party, praising Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders and saying that America’s economic system “fundamentally has to be reformed.” He also said the next Democratic president should be more aggressive with executive actions, adding, &#8220;We are capable of doing much more.&#8221;

Donald Trump/Gavin Newsom

Trump Taunts Newsom With 2028 Suggestion After Viral SAT Comment

Atlanta

Executive

The 2028 presidential primaries may have just begun to peek over the horizon, but media personalities are already starting to put their thumbs on the scales as they go about interviewing those who seem likely to throw a hat into the ring.
For those who don&#8217;t spend their Sunday mornings glued to the television — and their Sunday afternoons attempting to dig through a week&#8217;s worth of network and cable news media spin — The Daily Wire has compiled a short summary of what you may have missed.
On Sunday, two competing interviews — one with Governor Josh Shapiro (D-PA) on ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week&#8221; and the other with Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) on CNN&#8217;s &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; — gave viewers a glimpse of what they might expect from legacy media as the next presidential election approached.
Early polling suggests that both Shapiro and Newsom could be considering a 2028 run for the White House, and as is often a precursor to such a campaign, both have published recent memoirs in an effort to test the waters. But the tone of those interviews shed some light on how the legacy media might treat the two governors differently during a presidential campaign.
On &#8220;This Week,&#8221; host Martha Raddatz was conciliatory toward Shapiro as long as he was keeping the attack focused on President Donald Trump.
At one point, knowing that Shapiro had been at a meeting with the president at the time, she asked him to describe Trump&#8217;s demeanor when he learned that his tariffs had been shot down by the Supreme Court.
Shapiro said that Trump had been taking questions from the governors at the meeting when an aide approached and handed him a piece of paper detailing the ruling. &#8220;I think he said, ‘we lost?’, as a question, the aide nodded in affirmation.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gov. Josh Shapiro describes what happened when President Trump found out about the Supreme Court ruling during a meeting at the White House: “I think he said, ‘we lost?’, as a question, the aide nodded in affirmation.” <a href="https://t.co/ZpBwNhvycr">https://t.co/ZpBwNhvycr</a> <a href="https://t.co/vimv2UdJcN">pic.twitter.com/vimv2UdJcN</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025595617683333368?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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Raddatz went on to ask about Trump&#8217;s new plan — to use Section 122 to levy tariffs rather than the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) as he had previously — and Shapiro once again condemned Trump.
&#8220;I wish he would just adhere to the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling and stop the pain for the American people,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro on President Trump’s plan to use Section 122 to levy tariffs: “I wish he would just adhere to the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling and stop the pain for the American people.” <a href="https://t.co/oAxlKTXb3i">https://t.co/oAxlKTXb3i</a> <a href="https://t.co/gcKLdxKBFU">pic.twitter.com/gcKLdxKBFU</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025600792900878810?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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When asked about the possibility of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) surge in Pennsylvania, Shapiro toed the party line: &#8220;We do not want that kind of chaos in our communities in Pennsylvania, so don&#8217;t come. But if you come, we are prepared to address it.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gov. Josh Shapiro says Pennsylvania is preparing for a potential ICE surge: “We do not want that kind of chaos in our communities in Pennsylvania, so don&#8217;t come. But if you come, we are prepared to address it.” <a href="https://t.co/KOQRly9D1A">https://t.co/KOQRly9D1A</a> <a href="https://t.co/ISi98wnkw2">pic.twitter.com/ISi98wnkw2</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025602518022340772?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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But then Raddatz pointed to a recent New York Times piece about a long-running feud between Shapiro and Senator John Fetterman (D-PA). Shapiro, clearly uncomfortable with the line of questioning, said only that his relationship with Fetterman was &#8220;constructive&#8221; — and would not commit to supporting the senator if he chose to run for reelection.
&#8220;I think he needs to decide if he&#8217;s running, and then we&#8217;ll make a decision from there,&#8221; Shapiro said, arguing that the feud was a fabrication on the part of journalists attempting to stir up drama.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gov. Josh Shapiro says he has a “constructive relationship” with Sen. John Fetterman, but did not say if he would support a re-election bid: “I think he needs to decide if he&#8217;s running, and then we&#8217;ll make a decision from there.” <a href="https://t.co/dGjJbpGGuw">https://t.co/dGjJbpGGuw</a> <a href="https://t.co/uxs577D8Oy">pic.twitter.com/uxs577D8Oy</a>
— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/2025602050915221871?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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On &#8220;State of the Union,&#8221; the tone shift was slight but noticeable. Newsom was given a lot of the same opportunities to bash Trump — &#8220;he&#8217;s flailing,&#8221; the California governor said of the Supreme Court&#8217;s ruling striking down the tariffs.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Newsom reacts to Supreme Court ruling striking down most of Trump&#8217;s tariffs: &#8220;He&#8217;s flailing&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/tI1yiSoZw1">pic.twitter.com/tI1yiSoZw1</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2025602757479084482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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But then Newsom was given far more room to sell himself throughout the interview, from questions about how he dealt with the death of his mother to a detailed explanation about his lifelong struggle with dyslexia and how he now views that as a &#8220;superpower.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Gavin Newsom on his lifelong struggle with dyslexia: &#8220;I do think it&#8217;s a superpower&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/7Q0J8d0xks">pic.twitter.com/7Q0J8d0xks</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2025602206624292896?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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The most difficult question posed to Newsom was how he planned to handle it if his career and the career of his old friend — former Vice President Kamala Harris — ended up on a collision course in 2028. When Newsom <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gavin-newsom-laughs-off-potential-face-off-with-kamala-in-2028-thats-fate-if-it-happens">dismissed the question</a> out of hand as up to &#8220;fate,&#8221; Bash simply let the matter drop and allowed him to pivot right back to talking about his book.
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Gavin Newsom on possibly facing Kamala Harris in the 2028 presidential primary: &#8220;I&#8217;ve never gotten in the way of her ambition&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/PDm8CmkR96">pic.twitter.com/PDm8CmkR96</a>
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/2025602268746145959?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 22, 2026</a></blockquote>
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“That’s — you know, fate will determine that,” Newsom shrugged. “And I’ve never gotten in the way of her ambition, ever. I haven’t. And I don’t imagine I would in the future. But I don’t —”
“But if you run against each other for president —” Bash tried again.
“That’s fate,” Newsom said again, dismissing the question entirely. “You only can control what you can control. I think this entire book is that fundamental lesson. And this notion of controlling what you control, and taking responsibility for what you control, is a big part of what I try to communicate in this book. That’s the third thing, it’s like how this book will be received. It’s the third thing, I can’t control it. I can’t control whatever decisions she makes.”
As the primaries approach, the delineation will get clearer — but it&#8217;s already clear that Newsom has the media&#8217;s attention, and media outlets want to be sure he has yours too.

SPIN CYCLE: Two Interviews Reveal How The Press Is Framing 2028

Dana Bash

Josh Shapiro

Martha Raddatz

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