Gavin Newsom's Bold Podcast Strategy: A High-Stakes Move | Vanity Fair

Gavin Newsom is taking time away from running the world’s fifth-largest economy to…talk to Steve Bannon? On this episode, host Radhika Jones, alongside Claire Howorth and Michael Calderone, discusses the California governor’s outreach to right-wingers through his new podcast, This Is Gavin Newsom, and whether he’s effectively countering the MAGA media machine. The three also revisit Newsom’s trailblazing decision on gay marriage, as well as that infamous rug photo, and explore whether the govcaster’s chat show could help—or hinder—his chances of one day landing atop the Democratic ticket.

On his podcast, Newsom has chummed it up with the likes of Charlie Kirk and Bannon, in an apparent attempt to invite Republican voters into the Democratic discourse. With Kirk, he recently argued against transgender athletes in women’s sports, calling their participation in such sports “deeply unfair.” More recently, he had former vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz on the pod, with the governor praising Bannon’s emphasis on “working folks” while downplaying the role of “racism and misogyny” in fueling the MAGA movement.

Vanity Fair editors expressed some concerns with Newsom’s bookings so far. “The problem with trying to engage with all these far-right figures is that they all bring this fusillade of bullshit,” Howorth argues. “They wrap it up in real-sounding data points and authentic-sounding feelings, but they’re not genuine. They’re not sincere. And everybody needs to remember this.”

Jones even proposes an idea for Newsom’s next guest: “You know who I think he should listen to? [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]…. She has some very specific messaging language for Democrats, and it’s not about engaging someone like Bannon or Kirk at this kind of abstract level. It’s very specifically about the experience of people’s lives at a granular level…. It’s very practical and pragmatic.”

Long a fixture of California politics, Newsom first rose to prominence as San Francisco’s mayor in 2004, riding in part on the largesse of powerful local dynasties like the Getty family. “He had this support in San Francisco before the tech boom,” recalls Jones. “The people who founded the Gap and Esprit and sort of these earlier economic powerhouses of San Francisco.” One of Newsom’s biggest opening acts was to direct San Francisco to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in 2004—which unleashed a tsunami of negative headlines at the time, but lent him national credibility as a progressive crusader. “Reportedly, even Barack Obama, when he was out in California, didn’t want to be photographed with Newsom,” explains Calderone. “The fear among Democrats was that he was going too far in supporting gay rights.”

Of course, the tabloid intrigue around Newsom’s interior life has also brought about headlines—and not all of them good. There was that 2004 Harper’s Bazaar photo shoot in which he spooned Kimberly Guilfoyle, his then wife (who would eventually become the ex-fiancée of Donald Trump Jr.), on an ornate rug in a Getty-owned mansion. The spread was “all very Trumpian, frankly,” observes Howorth. “He’s in a Hugo Boss suit and I think she’s in Celine.” There was also the affair he had with his own secretary (the wife of his former deputy chief of staff and mayoral reelection campaign manager), which was made public in 2007. Oh, and don’t forget the maskless dinner he attended at Napa Valley’s French Laundry during California’s 2020 COVID spike, which fueled a failed attempt to recall his governorship. “I think we can safely say that Gavin Newsom is not afraid of spectacle,” concludes Jones.

Since then, Newsom, who was elected governor in 2018, has dealt with countless issues facing the Golden State, including homelessness, crime, wildfires, immigration, and a housing shortage. But now it appears he’s undergoing more of a personal reckoning, with Democrats figuring out how to reconnect with voters after their disastrous loss to Donald Trump.

“It’s a bit of a straw man, this idea that Democrats or liberals have to get out of their echo chambers…I think most people would agree Democrats should not only be speaking to people who are already converted,” Calderone says of Newsom’s show. “But at the same time, you have to, I think, give people something that is inspiring or something that is going to, you know, feel like you’re really fighting on their behalf.”

Gwyneth Paltrow on Fame, Raw Milk, and Why Sex Doesn’t Always Sell

Simone Ashley’s Life in the Fast Lane

Fire, Controversies, Backlash: All the Drama Surrounding Snow White

The Alexander Brothers Built an Empire. Their Accusers Say the Foundation Was Sexual Violence.

The Democrat’s Rising Star Elissa Slotkin Is Fighting Trump Tooth and Nail

Exploring the wild Sam Rockwell monologue on White Lotus

Delving into the AI grudge match between Elon Musk and Sam Altman

Appreciating White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood’s inspiring teeth

Discussing why some believe Gwen Stefani has gone MAGA

Getting to know Elon Musk’s 14 children and their known mothers

Reflecting on the connection between Sinatra and the Mob from the archive