Latest news with #Newsom
Irish Daily Star
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Irish Daily Star
Gavin Newsom says 'gloves are off' as he issues furious 7-word warning to conservatives
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a furious warning to conservative media outlets like Fox News saying that the "gloves are off" after suing the network for a staggering $787 million. "The gloves are off. Let's go. We're gonna call out the bullshit. And the propaganda. And the weaponization of lies and disinformation on networks like Fox, and we'll do it in every capacity on behalf of the people I represent and an individual capacity," Newsom said during an interview with MeidasTouch. Saying that he has had "enough," the governor explained the basis of the case by saying that it is "time to assert ourselves much more forcefully with character and conviction and have the backs of people that don't have the voice that some of us have and the ability to do what some of us can do." Read More Related Articles Health concerns swirl as Trump is spotted limping up the stairs to Air Force One Read More Related Articles Four urgent signs Donald Trump has a specific type of dementia expert warns Newsom sued the network for presenting misleading information about his phone call with President Donald Trump earlier this month. It came amid the protests in Los Angeles over the president's sweeping immigration enforcement actions and mobilization of National Guard Troops. The governor is seeking at least $787 million in damages as well as a court order prohibiting the conservative network from airing any other segments claiming that he lied about his call with Trump which took place on June 7. "If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump's behalf, it should face consequences- just like it did in the Dominion case," Newsom said in his statement. These punitive damages are identical to the amount Fox had to pay in 2023 to settle a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems over election conspiracy broadcast. "Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine," Newsom added. Newsom's attorneys also demanded a formal retraction and on-air apology from Fox News host Jesse Waters who claimed that the governor had lied about the phone call. Newsom agreed to dismiss the lawsuit if the conditions are met. "Gov. Newsom's transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed," a Fox News spokesperson told Irish Star US. Newsom told MSNBC on June 8 about a phone call between him and Trump taking place late at night on June 6 in California which is after 1 a.m. June 7 on East Coast time. Trump mobilized the National Guard 24 hours later to quell anti-ICE protesters. On June 10, during a news conference at the White House, when a reporter asked Trump about his call with the California governor, the president said that he called Newsom "a day ago." "Called him to tell him, got to do a better job," Trump said. However, Newsom posted a video clip of the comment on social media, claiming that "there was no call." "There was no call. Not even a voicemail," Newsom wrote, adding, "Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn't even know who he's talking to." To respond, Trump provided screenshots of his phone log to Fox News that showed their call on June 6 as opposed to his previous claims of calling him "a day ago." Newsom alleged that during the coverage, Fox News made false video edits and statements, framing the call log as proof that Newsom has reportedly lied about the call.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 hours ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
Newsom sues Fox News, alleging defamation over coverage of Trump call
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom sued Fox News on Friday, alleging the network lied about his communications with President Donald Trump over the deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles. Newsom says Fox's reporting amounts to defamation. His lawsuit serves as both a formal legal complaint and an opportunity for the governor to troll two longtime foes: Trump and Fox News. Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles to quell protests over his immigration raids caused a major escalation in the long-simmering tensions between Newsom and Trump, who hail from opposing political parties and frequently tangle over their policy differences. Newsom and Trump spoke by phone late on June 6 in California and early June 7 on the East Coast. Newsom says the two men barely talked about the protests in Los Angeles on the call, which focused on Trump's threats to withhold federal funding from the state. Newsom was blindsided, he says, when Trump announced he was sending the troops into Los Angeles. On June 10, Trump told reporters at the White House he had spoken to Newsom 'a day ago' to tell him he needed to get the situation in Los Angeles under control, though a call log he provided to Fox News reporter John Roberts showed the conversation took place on June 7 at 1:23 a.m. Eastern. Newsom said Trump's comments were false because the only phone call took place several days prior. 'There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a President deploying Marines onto our streets doesn't even know who he's talking to,' Newsom wrote in a social media post. Roberts said on air that Trump had said the call took place 'yesterday or the other day' and posted on social media that Trump had provided a screenshot of the call log with an accompanying statement. 'This shows what a liar he is,' Trump said in the statement. 'Said I never called. Here is the evidence.' In the lawsuit, Newsom alleges Roberts did not accurately characterize Trump's statements. But he alleges that the bigger offender was Fox commentator Jesse Watters, who said Newsom lied that Trump never called him without providing the context that Trump said the call occurred 'a day ago.' The lawsuit, filed in state court in Delaware, seeks $787 million in damages. That's how much Fox agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 to settle a defamation case over the network's inaccurate coverage of the 2020 election. 'If Fox News wants to lie to the American people on Donald Trump's behalf, it should face consequences — just like it did in the Dominion case,' Newsom wrote in a statement. 'I believe the American people should be able to trust the information they receive from a major news outlet. Until Fox is willing to be truthful, I will keep fighting against their propaganda machine.' 'Gov. Newsom's transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him,' the statement reads. 'We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.' Newsom's lawyers also include digs at the president's mental acuity in the lawsuit. 'It is impossible to know for certain whether President Trump's distortion was intentionally deceptive or merely a result of his poor cognitive state, but Fox's decision to cover up for the President's false statement cannot be so easily dismissed,' they wrote. They provided their evidence for their characterization of the president's mental state in a footnote: 'As a rather ironic example of perhaps President Trump's cognitive decline, he recently spoke of former President Biden as not being 'the sharpest bulb.'' Separately, Newsom is also suing the Trump administration to regain control over the California National Guard troops the president deployed in Los Angeles. That lawsuit is ongoing, and so far judges have allowed Trump to retain authority over the troops as it proceeds.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 hours ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
California budget comes down to the wire as Newsom, lawmakers face off over housing
SACRAMENTO — California lawmakers are scheduled to pass a budget that rolls back health care benefits for undocumented immigrants and makes other cuts, even as they continue to negotiate with Gov. Gavin Newsom over housing policies that have so far prevented them from reaching a final deal. The housing policies at issue would represent some of the most significant reforms to the state's landmark environmental law, the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, since its inception. They would grant broad exemptions to CEQA for homes and other buildings in already developed areas. The lawmakers who crafted the original proposals argue that the law has been abused by people trying to block development and that building more homes in already densely populated areas where people live and work is good for the environment. Newsom agreed, and has made his signature on the budget contingent on lawmakers agreeing to enact some of the CEQA exemptions. But when the negotiated language was released earlier this week, it drew swift backlash, especially from labor unions. Lorena Gonzalez, who leads the California Labor Federation, criticized the proposal because she said it did not require high enough wages for construction workers who build the projects allowed under the bill. For years, bills meant to kickstart housing construction have been stymied by labor unions' insistence on provisions that would effectively require that new homes be built by union workers or ones paid what developers often describe as prohibitively high wages. The budget bill lawmakers plan to pass Friday contains a clause that would render it inoperative if lawmakers don't also approve much of the CEQA overhaul that Newsom has called for. The budget deal makes up for a projected $12 billion shortfall in part by taking out billions of dollars in loans and taking money from the state's reserves. It also partially scales back the state's health care coverage for undocumented people who make less than 138% of the federal poverty level. It will freeze enrollment for the program starting next year and will charge undocumented people ages 19-59 $30 per month in premiums starting in 2027. Growing health care costs, in addition to the economic toll from import taxes imposed by President Donald Trump, made the state's budget outlook particularly challenging this year. 'We had to make some very difficult decisions to balance this budget,' Erika Li, a top budget official for the Newsom administration, told lawmakers during a committee hearing earlier this week. Republicans criticized some of the borrowing and budgeting techniques Newsom and lawmakers used to balance the budget, arguing there should have been more cuts given the economic uncertainty in the years ahead. 'This budget that we see today, to the extent that I can understand it, still has a large dose of hope for a miracle, and it is seemingly less likely,' Sen. Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, said during the committee hearing. Cities and counties, meanwhile, have criticized the agreement for not providing more funding for reducing homelessness and implementing Proposition 36, which increased penalties for drug and theft crimes. The budget does include a $750 million loan for struggling Bay Area transit agencies and an expansion of the state's film tax credit program to $750 million to try to keep the industry in California.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘This moment was thrust upon him': Gavin Newsom steps up to parry Trump's ‘wrecking ball' attacks on American democracy
When Donald Trump landed in Los Angeles to tour the ruins left by January's devastating wildfires, just days after being sworn in for a second term, California's governor, Gavin Newsom, was waiting on the tarmac to greet him. The surprisingly warm exchange between two longtime political rivals seemed to reflect a new reality: with a vengeful Trump back in the White House, fire-ravaged California – and its Democratic governor – had a great deal at stake. In the weeks that followed, Newsom met with Trump at the White House to lobby for federal disaster relief, then approved funding to strengthen the state's legal defenses against challenges from the Trump administration. He invited Maga-world fixtures on to his podcast, including Steve Bannon, and infuriated progressives, and even some allies, when he said that it was 'deeply unfair' for transgender athletes to compete in girls' sports – a wedge issue central to Trump's conservative agenda. All the while, his state was suing the Trump administration – over executive actions on immigration, federal funding and tariffs – at a rate of more than one lawsuit a week. Their fragile detente, already showing cracks, shattered spectacularly last week, when the president mobilized thousands of national guard troops and 700 marines – over the governor's objections – to quell protests in Los Angeles sparked by immigration raids across the region. Newsom accused Trump of deliberately injecting chaos into a situation that local authorities had under control. Trump's actions, he declared, were 'madness' and marked an 'unmistakable step toward authoritarianism'. Trump, in turn, called Newsom, whom he refers to as 'Newscum', grossly incompetent and suggested the governor should be arrested. 'Gavin likes the publicity,' the president mused, though he later played down the threat. With guards troops deployed in the streets of Los Angeles, the 57-year-old governor of the country's most populous state delivered a formal, state-of-the-union-style address warning that the president was taking a 'wrecking ball' to American democracy. 'Look, this isn't just about protests in LA,' Newsom said on Tuesday. 'This is about all of us. This is about you.' 'California may be first – but it clearly won't end here. Other states are next,' he said. 'Democracy is next.' *** For months, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and a growing number of alarmed Americans had been clamoring for leaders who grasp what they say is the urgency of Trump's assault on democratic norms and American institutions. When Trump activated California's national guard troops, Newsom stepped into the ring – and hasn't stopped swinging since. 'This moment was thrust upon him,' said Mike Madrid, a sharp critic of Trump and former political director of the California Republican party, 'and whether it was a battlefield conversion or a genuine moment, Gavin Newsom realized that the only way out of this was to fight.' In the week since the national guard's deployment to Los Angeles, Newsom has mounted an all-out offensive – battling Trump in the courts and in the court of public opinion. He has made himself ubiquitous: sitting for interviews with podcasters and YouTubers, national media and local media. On social media, he and his team are running a rapid response blitz – a stream of taunts, Star Wars memes and factchecks. Newsom sued to block the guard's deployment without his consent. California later filed an emergency order asking a judge to bar the guard from assisting with immigration enforcement. On Thursday, a federal judge sided with the state, finding that Trump's deployment of the guard was unlawful – though the victory was short-lived. Two hours later, the ninth US circuit court of appeals temporarily blocked the order. 'He is not a king and he should stop acting like one,' Newsom said on Thursday, at a press conference before the ruling was paused. The White House has responded in kind, with Trump hurling insults back at Newsom. When asked what crime Newsom might be charged with, Trump sniped: 'His primary crime is running for governor, because he's done such a bad job.' Trump, thanking the appeals court on Friday, said: 'If I didn't send the military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now' – a claim Newsom, city officials and local law enforcement strongly dispute. Tensions escalated further on Thursday, when a senator from California, Alex Padilla, was forcibly removed and handcuffed after trying to ask a question at a press conference held by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, amid the ongoing protests in Los Angeles. Newsom called the episode 'outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful'. 'This is a moment that tests the mettle of leaders,' said Brian Brokaw, a longtime political adviser to Newsom. He noted that Newsom's tenure was defined by crisis from the very start. Newsom has pretty good instincts. He knows what a moment like this requires – and that's what you're seeing from him now Brian Brokaw, longtime political adviser to Gavin Newsom The day after he was elected in 2018, a gunman killed 12 people at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks and as the Camp fire – the deadliest wildfire in state history – raged toward the town of Paradise. Since then, Newsom has faced a near-constant onslaught: more fires, more mass shootings, floods, mudslides, drought, a global pandemic, mass protests after the murder of George Floyd, and the wildfires that swept Los Angeles earlier this year. 'Newsom has pretty good instincts,' Brokaw said. 'He knows what a moment like this requires – and that's what you're seeing from him now.' The rapidly intensifying standoff between Trump and Newsom has rallied Democrats. Twenty-two Democratic governors signed a joint statement in support of California, calling Trump's troop deployment 'ineffective and dangerous'. The signatories spanned the ideological spectrum of the party and included several governors who are potential 2028 presidential contenders, such as JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Andy Beshear of Kentucky. 'He has shown he's not going to be intimidated, and we're all for that,' Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said earlier this week. Even some of his critics have been impressed. Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, one of the groups behind Saturday's 'day of defiance' protests against Trump, said Newsom's pugilistic response to the president's 'bullying' has been 'spot on'. 'I think he's been one of the leading members of the 'roll over and play dead' faction, one of these dead-dog Democrats,' Levin said. 'But maybe – maybe – he is shifting sides, and I think it is very important that we welcome people and leaders when they do that.' *** The White House believes its maximalist response to unrest in California plays to its political advantage. Trump, who campaigned on a promise of mass deportations, has framed California's resistance as an obstruction to what he says is a popular mandate. Images of protesters waving Mexican flags near burning robotaxis feed the rightwing narrative of disorder in Democratic-run cities such as Los Angeles. 'To be very cynical about this, you can argue that this benefits both principals,' said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank at Stanford University. 'Donald Trump gets to swing at his favorite piñata, California, but Gavin Newsom doesn't mind taking the whacks because it plays pretty well with the Democratic base.' According to a YouGov flash poll, 45% of Americans disapprove of the Los Angeles protests, while 36% approve. Similar shares disapprove of Trump's deployment of the marines – 47% to 34% – and the national guard – 45% to 38%. Since Trump's 2024 victory, many Democrats have taken pains to show support for law enforcement and border security. Some say Newsom's approach offers a clear path forward. He has been unequivocal in condemning sporadic violence, vowing 'zero tolerance' for bad actors. At the same time, he has offered a full-throated defense of the city's immigrant communities, accusing Trump of tearing apart families and 'disappearing' neighbors. 'What's happening right now is very different than anything we've seen before,' Newsom said in his Tuesday address, accusing federal agents of indiscriminately targeting Latino neighborhoods. 'Trump is pulling a military dragnet across LA, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals.' Conservatives say Newsom's posture is precisely what helped Trump make inroads in some of the bluest corners of the country last year. Steve Hilton, a former top adviser to former UK prime minister David Cameron now running for governor of California, accused Newsom of trying to 'gaslight us'. 'Do your job,' he said on Fox News, 'instead of pretending this is fine.' *** Newsom rose to prominence as the mayor of San Francisco, defying state law to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He served as the state's lieutenant governor for eight years before being elected governor in the middle of Trump's first term, riding a wave of progressive anger. He survived a 2021 recall attempt, fueled in part by backlash to his handling of the pandemic, and was easily re-elected in 2022. He campaigned aggressively for Biden in 2024, even as some in the party hoped he'd run himself. When Biden dropped out, Newsom quickly endorsed his fellow Californian, 'fearless' Kamala Harris. Democrats' staggering losses in November left the party leaderless and without power in Washington. As Democrats grasped for answers – how to oppose an emboldened president whom voters chose over them – Newsom launched a podcast. Some speculated Newsom's moves – interviewing far-right figures on his podcast, cracking down on homeless encampments and moving to scale back health coverage for immigrants without legal status – were part of a calculated pivot toward the political center, in preparation for a 2028 presidential run. Asked recently at a press conference if he was trying to shed his liberal persona, Newsom said he had always been a 'hard-headed pragmatist'. 'I'm not an ideologue,' he added. California – the biggest blue state in the country – has long served as Trump's favorite foil. From homelessness and crime to immigration and climate policy, Trump has painted the state as a cautionary tale – a failed experiment in liberal governance now a 'symbol of our nation's decline'. This week, amid his clash with Newsom, Trump signed into law a measure blocking California's vehicle emissions rules and his administration announced plans to abolish two of the state's newest national monuments. 'If it's a day ending in Y, it's another day of Trump's war on California,' the governor's office tweeted. Steve Maviglio, a Democratic political consultant, said Newsom's 'guerrilla warfare' tactics may raise the governor's national profile – but at a cost. 'We know that the president doesn't respond well to being attacked,' Maviglio said, adding: 'It's likely going to result in a lot less federal dollars coming our way – which is about the last thing we need right now with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.' Yet Newsom's attempt at conciliation yielded little protection. Earlier this month, the Trump administration warned it may pull billions in funding from California's long-delayed high-speed rail project. Trump has threatened to 'maybe permanently' strip federal funding if the state continues to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls' and women's sports. And California is still waiting for the disaster aid Newsom sought after the fires. Newsom has argued in recent interviews that Trump can't be placated. The governor suggested the state had leverage: it could withhold the billions in taxes its residents pay the federal government. (He has since tempered the idea, but said he urged his team to get 'creative' on how the state might push back on Trump's threats.) He's become what Democrats nationally have been waiting for since the election Mike Madrid, former political director of the California Republican party Newsom also suggested that growing public opposition to the immigration crackdown was working, after Trump conceded that his immigration tactics were hurting agriculture and hospitality. 'Turns out, chasing hardworking people through ranches and snatching women and children off the streets is not good policy,' Newsom shot back. Though protests have calmed, the situation remains volatile. With the appeals court decision, Trump remains in command of the national guard through at least next week. On Friday, US marines temporarily detained a man outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles – the first known detention of a civilian by active-duty troops deployed there by Trump. Speaking in Los Angeles, Noem pledged to 'liberate' Los Angeles and vowed that the Trump administration would continue its immigration operations across the region. Ahead of planned protests on Saturday, Newsom ordered the state to 'pre-deploy' additional resources to support law enforcement throughout the state. Organized as a show of defiance against Trump's military parade staged in the streets of Washington DC on Saturday to celebrate the US army's 250th anniversary and the president's 79th birthday, the events have multiplied since Trump deployed guard troops to Los Angeles. For Newsom, the stakes are bigger than California. He has framed this moment as a test of democratic resilience in the face of creeping authoritarianism. And for those who have long sounded the alarm, the governor is meeting it. 'He's become what Democrats nationally have been waiting for since the election,' Madrid said. 'He's the tip of the spear – the more strenuously he fights, the more aggressive he is, the more he uses Trump's tactics against him, the more he's going to be rewarded.' David Smith in Washington and Rachel Leingang contributed reporting
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
California's Gavin Newsom sues Fox News, seeking a very specific amount of money
Donald Trump's condemnations of the nation's free press are painfully routine, though the president has been a bit more hysterical than usual this week, and there's no great mystery as to why. Two days after the Republican declared that U.S. military strikes had 'completely and totally obliterated' Iranian nuclear sites, the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency completed a preliminary intelligence assessment that found the airstrikes were less effective than Trump claimed. A great many news organizations, naturally, shared that information with the public after the assessment was leaked to reporters. Trump and his team lashed out wildly, not only because of the leak, but because independent media outlets reported the news. In fact, on Wednesday, Trump's personal lawyer threatened to sue The New York Times and CNN, claiming that the newspaper and the network damaged the president's reputation by running reports that Trump considers, among other things, 'false' and 'unpatriotic.' Time will tell what, if anything, comes of such an odd threat, but as it turns out, the Republican isn't the only political leader targeting a media outlet under related circumstances. NBC News reported: California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Fox News on Friday, accusing host Jesse Watters of defamation by falsely claiming that Newsom had lied about a phone call with President Donald Trump during a dispute over the use of the National Guard in Los Angeles. The lawsuit ... claims that Fox 'operates as a propaganda machine for President Trump's radical right-wing agenda.' Politico was first to report on the suit. The Democratic governor is seeking more than $787 million — and if that seemingly unusual figure sounds at all familiar, it's because that's roughly the amount of money the network paid in 2023 to settle a defamation case filed by Dominion Voting System. Or put another way, Newsom and his lawyers engaged in a bit of political trolling when they chose this specific dollar amount. 'By disregarding basic journalistic ethics in favor of malicious propaganda, Fox continues to play a major role in the further erosion of the bedrock principles of informed representative government,' the lawsuit states. 'Setting the record straight and confronting Fox's dishonest practices are critical to protecting democracy from being overrun by disinformation and lies.' The incident that sparked the litigation came earlier this month. On June 10, a reporter asked Trump when he'd last spoken to Newsom, and the president replied, 'A day ago.' The Californian quickly responded that he had no idea what Trump was talking about, adding that the two had no interactions on June 9. The president later clarified that he was off by a couple of days in his initial comments, and the story (such as it was) faded from view. But on Fox News, the story unfolded a little differently. In fact, on June 10, after airing an edited clip of the president, Watters told viewers, 'Why would Newsom lie and claim Trump never called him? Why would he do that?' The on-screen text read at the time: 'Gavin Lied About Trump's Call.' In reality, the governor didn't say that Trump 'never called him'; he said Trump's claim about a June 9 call was wrong, and on that point, the president himself soon after conceded that Newsom was correct. 'If Fox News fails to issue a formal retraction and on-air apology, we will proceed with the lawsuit so that a jury can determine Fox News's culpability and assign a monetary value to its 'blatantly unethical' conduct,' the governor's lawyers Michael Teter and Mark Bankson wrote in a letter. Fox added in a statement of its own: 'Gov. Newsom's transparent publicity stunt is frivolous and designed to chill free speech critical of him. We will defend this case vigorously and look forward to it being dismissed.' As a legal matter, Newsom faces a tough challenge. As Politico's report noted, 'Public officials must clear an extremely high legal standard to prevail in defamation cases, as the U.S. Supreme Court established six decades ago in New York Times v. Sullivan.' Watch this space. This article was originally published on
