Governor Gavin Newsom at the JFK Library (Segment)

0:00 Hello everyone.

0:01 How do how are you liking the Kennedy Library so far?

0:09 Don't we punch our above our weight

0:10 in Massachusetts politically with Mora Healey and John Kerry?

0:18 Feels really good to have everyone here tonight.

0:22 Um, good evening.

0:23 I'm Stephen Kennedy Smith and we're so happy to be here with you tonight.

0:27 On behalf of my family, I want to welcome you to the John F.

0:30 Kennedy Library and Museum.

0:33 This library was created to inspire reflection

0:36 on the ideals that shape President Kennedy's life and leadership,

0:41 public service, courage, and a belief that politics at its

0:45 best can expand opportunity and strengthen democracy.

0:50 Tonight's conversation continues the tradition of bringing together voices

0:54 engaged in the most important debates of our time.

0:58 And we're honored tonight with to have with us

1:01 this evening the 40th governor of California, Gavin Newsome.

1:13 Uh, so I I actually worked on a book

1:15 on President Kennedy and standing here at the Kennedy Library,

1:19 I can't help but notice a few interesting

1:21 parallels between Governor Nuomo and President John F.

1:25 Kennedy.

1:26 Both come from families shaped by Irish immigrant roots.

1:31 Both were elected to public office at remarkably young ages.

1:35 John F.

1:35 Kennedy was just 29 when he was elected to Congress.

1:39 And Governor Nuomo was 36 when he became the youngest

1:42 mayor of San Francisco in more than a century.

1:46 And it must be said as well that both men are

1:48 known for having a good head of hair and a playful wit.

1:55 During the 1960 presidential campaign,

1:57 Vice President Nixon often emphasized his greater experience.

2:02 And President Kennedy responded by saying, "It's true.

2:05 My opponent has plenty of experience.

2:07 He's been wrong on just about everything.

2:11 And recently while watching the State of the Union,

2:14 Governor Nuomo posted on X with similar good human good humor.

2:19 Oh no, Donald, you need some of my hair gel.

2:24 Some people in my family think I need that hair gel as well.

2:28 Um, lastly, in 1960,

2:31 the novelist Norman Mailor wrote a famous essay about John F.

2:35 Kennedy entitled Superman Comes to the Supermarket

2:39 and Governor Nuomo actually resembles Superman.

2:44 In that same essay written in 1960,

2:48 Mailor wrote that beneath the surface of American politics

2:52 runs what he called a subterranean river of untapped,

2:56 ferocious, lonely, and romantic desires.

3:00 And it was, he said, a hero that America needed.

3:04 a man whose personality might suggest contradictions and mysteries

3:08 which could reach into the alienated circuits of the underground.

3:13 We still need heroes today.

3:16 And in every generation, America looks for leaders who can tap

3:19 into that deeper current of hope and imagination.

3:23 In many ways, that search still continues.

3:28 And I liked what Governor Healey said tonight, never give up.

3:33 In the words of the poet Shelley,

3:36 to hope till hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates.

3:42 Governor Nuome's story reflects the enduring American tradition of hope.

3:48 Born in San Francisco,

3:49 he attended Santa Clara University and began his career as an entrepreneur,

3:53 building what would become the Plumchack Group of restaurants,

3:56 hotels, and winery across California.

3:59 His path into public service began

4:02 on the San Francisco Parking and Traffic Commission,

4:04 the board of supervisors before he was elected mayor in San Francisco in 2003.

4:11 Today, as governor of California, he leads the largest state in the nation

4:15 and one of the world's most dynamic economies.

4:18 His administration is focused on protecting fundamental freedoms,

4:22 advancing climate action, strengthening education and workforce opportunity,

4:28 and supporting the spirit in of innovation that has long defined California.

4:34 I can say also as someone who spent a lot of time in California

4:37 and has many fe family members who live there that he he's done

4:40 a masterful job of overseeing um

4:44 the rebuilding of Pacific Palisades and and dealing

4:48 with the disaster that took place there and that was truly grace under pressure.

4:53 Governor Newsome has also published a new book, Young Man in a Hurry,

4:57 a personal reflection on the experiences and influences

5:00 that has shaped his life in public service.

5:03 From his family's Irish roots to the defining

5:05 moments that propelled him into politics.

5:08 I encourage you to look visit the bookstore this evening and pick up a copy.

5:13 Uh joining Governor Nuome tonight is our moderator Brian Tyler Cohen,

5:17 who you've already met, one of the most viewed political commentators online,

5:21 reaching millions of people with a thoughtful

5:23 and obsessible discussions about politics and public life.

5:27 His podcast, No Lie, with Brian Tyler,

5:30 Cohen has become a widely followed platform for conversations with journalists,

5:35 policy makers, and national leaders.

5:38 We're delighted to have both of them here with us tonight

5:40 for what I'm sure will be a lively and engaging conversation.

5:45 Please join me in giving a warm New England welcome,

5:48 if that's not a contradiction in terms,

5:51 to Governor Gavin Newsome and Brian Tyler Cohen as they come to the stage.

6:22 I hope you're on your glass of wine so we can justify this.

6:27 I I apologize.

6:29 Governor Newsome, thank you for uh for joining us.

6:32 It wasn't, you know, I'm not an old man.

6:35 uh you know, hardly in a hurry anymore.

6:38 Forgive me for being a couple hours late, but it's great to be here with you.

6:41 I I had the privilege I was just um and it may still be going on uh at Jesse

6:47 Jackson's uh celebration of life uh in Chicago and um

6:52 which was remarkable and uh and I'm not exaggerating,

6:57 it still may be going on so I had to sneak

7:00 out a little early and uh and forgive me for being tired.

7:03 So, I want to start off with Prop 50, California.

7:07 Uh, you took decisive action,

7:09 first governor in the country to push back on the power

7:12 grab that took place at the hands of this administration,

7:14 which I think you deserve a ton of credit for right off the bat.

7:17 I appreciate it.

7:23 This was in response to Texas drawing four districts

7:26 at at the uh at the behest of Donald Trump, the demand of Donald Trump.

7:29 uh five districts, sorry, five districts uh that he felt he was entitled to.

7:34 This past Tuesday, uh in Texas's uh primary elections,

7:39 four of those districts had higher Democratic turnout than Republican turnout.

7:46 Amazing.

7:46 Yeah.

7:46 Yeah.

7:48 Did this whole effort backfire by Republicans?

7:51 Was this a fool's errand by Republicans to have engaged in the first place?

7:54 It's still to be determined, but you know, let's back up a little bit on this.

7:59 It's you use the word entitled because that's exactly

8:02 the word that Donald Trump used when he called Greg Abbott.

8:05 He said, "I'm entitled to five seats." Which

8:08 is remarkable and chilling just on its own.

8:10 Then again, it's hardly surprising.

8:12 This is a guy after January 6, that day of love,

8:17 tried to light democracy on fire, tried to steal the election.

8:22 you know, democracy is for suckers.

8:25 Kind of the attitude.

8:26 Then went down there, you know,

8:28 talking about finding 11 12,000 votes down in Georgia.

8:31 He knows, and I was with the speaker to be uh Jeff um an hour or two ago,

8:39 uh he knows he's going to get shellacked in this election.

8:41 He knows he's going to lose the midterm elections.

8:43 It's the one thing we can all agree on if we do our job.

8:47 And that's why he went out and made that phone call to Greg

8:50 Abbott to try to rig the election before one vote was cast.

8:55 What typically is the case,

8:56 and I say this with love and reverence to my party, our party,

9:00 Democratic party, so often our response to something like

9:03 that would be to try to win an argument,

9:06 you know, to maybe go out, Brian, and we, you know,

9:10 work to maybe get an op-ed in the New York Times.

9:13 I say, "Gosh darn it, you know, just this is so wrong."

9:17 Or maybe maybe even a strongly worded letter.

9:20 Or maybe a strongly worded letter.

9:22 I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but

9:24 and and I'll be candid with you, that was kind of our inclination.

9:27 I started with a tweet.

9:28 I was very satisfied with myself.

9:31 They said we had 500 likes.

9:33 I said, "That's amazing." Um but it occurred to pretty much

9:38 all of us and Ryan you were a real vocal leader

9:42 on this all holding us to a higher level of expectation

9:45 accountability because this time last year not many of us were sure.

9:49 I mean we were hand ringing you know we were struggling

9:53 in every way shape or form as a party to figure it out.

9:55 We were still in this are we really going

9:57 to do a forensic what the hell just happened?

10:00 And there was a sense that we're just truly

10:02 weak and ineffective and weren't able to get anything done.

10:07 And I think it was in that stew that we

10:09 decided to do something uh a little bit differently.

10:13 But of course that required a few phone calls and the first

10:15 and most important was to former speaker Nancy Pelosi who did the impossible.

10:20 She had just a matter of days.

10:21 we had to do a special election in response to draw these new

10:25 lines and she went to the largest delegation in the country and remarkably

10:30 got back a few hours later said let's do this of course we

10:34 didn't necessarily know how to do this and we went through a process over

10:37 a course quite literally of about 10 days in total and put

10:41 this on the ballot with a 90-day sprint raised $118 million and we not only

10:46 drew the line but we held the line and we pushed back and we

10:49 fought fire with fire and we punched back at what happened in Texas.

10:54 And and and Brian, the the thing for me, it just, you know,

11:00 once a mind is stretched, it never goes back to its original form.

11:04 And it was what was remarkable about it, and again,

11:08 you were such a big part of it was how, you know,

11:11 in the spirit of Obama, who we were just with a moment ago as well,

11:14 is all these self-organizing communities coming together.

11:17 It wasn't a top- down campaign.

11:19 It was Prop 50 after all 50 states.

11:23 And our state of mind was about losing this republic.

11:26 You know, 250th anniversary,

11:28 the best of the Roman Republic, best of Greek democracy,

11:31 co-equal branches of government, popular sovereignty,

11:35 the rule of law, not the rule of dawn.

11:40 And it's increasingly, I think,

11:42 dawning on all of us that for things to change, we have to change.

11:47 And as a consequence of what we did,

11:50 we're doing everything differently now with a recognition

11:54 how precious and profound this moment is.

11:57 We can lose this republic.

11:59 This guy is not screwing around.

12:00 Let me highlight that, Brian.

12:03 On the day we kicked off the campaign for Prop 50,

12:07 it was at the Democracy Center in Little Tokyo.

12:09 It's a sacred site in Los Angeles

12:11 where we were interning the busing the Japanese.

12:14 It's a sacred site.

12:15 I underscore that because we had about a thousand people at a rally,

12:19 uh, two US senators, we had a dozen members of Congress, clergy,

12:23 uh, civil rights leaders to kick it off.

12:25 And we looked outside.

12:26 People were having a difficult time getting in.

12:28 We're like, what's going on?

12:29 They said, well, there's a bunch of masked men outside.

12:32 We rolled our eyes.

12:33 There's not masked men.

12:35 There was one exception.

12:36 A guy dressed up.

12:37 I kid you not.

12:38 As if he just came off the Burbank lot.

12:40 Warner Brothers in 1930s garb including the haircut.

12:45 Guy named Bovino.

12:47 Gregory Bo was out there with his private police force.

12:52 Appeared to be private.

12:54 No markings, no reference to who they're working for.

12:58 An intimidation tactic to keep people from walking in.

13:03 Poor guy selling true story strawberries across the street disappeared that day.

13:09 We finally tracked him back.

13:10 He finally came back a few weeks later.

13:12 Collateral damage.

13:14 We said at that time that is a preview of things to come.

13:17 What more evidence do you need than what happened in Minnesota?

13:21 Those guys clearly took an oath in office to Donald Trump,

13:25 not the Constitution of the United States of America on election day.

13:28 Again, if you think I'm overstating things,

13:31 on election day, Boino, Christy Gnome,

13:37 Steven Miller, the dark heart of the operation, sent out Bortac teams.

13:42 These are the border patrol tactical units with, you know,

13:46 these are the folks with the Apache helicopters on election morning,

13:50 sent them to the highest profile location you can find,

13:54 particularly after the Dodgers win the World Series, to Dodger Stadium.

13:58 to get all the morning news to send a message to our diverse

14:01 communities already on edge because we

14:04 have 4,000 National Guard federalized 700 active

14:08 duty Marines not sent overseas but the second largest city in the United

14:11 States of America to send a message don't bother to turn out the vote.

14:16 We said at the time that is a preview of things to come.

14:21 Of course, that came after Donald Trump sent out a true

14:24 social even earlier that morning saying the election in California is rigged.

14:30 He also sent out the Department of Justice.

14:32 Pam Bondi sent out his teams,

14:34 election walker watchers and observers the next day tweeted out,

14:37 "We have the evidence and they went

14:39 to the Supreme Court." A preview of things to come.

14:46 I kicked off this book tour in the South in Tennessee.

14:48 We were down in Fulton County,

14:51 met with the commissioners, head of the commission.

14:55 Trump is not only did he take with, you know, all that team of folks,

15:00 Telsey Gabbert and everything else, he's now trying to impose to take

15:06 over that commission for the election this year.

15:10 A preview of things to come to nationalize

15:13 the election or at least in 15 blue states.

15:17 What's the Save Act all about?

15:18 It's not about voter ID.

15:20 It's about who gets to vote.

15:22 It's about voter registration.

15:24 This guy is not screwing around.

15:27 And nor can we forgive the long-windedness you opened up with Prop 50.

15:33 That's what it represents.

15:35 We have got to fight fire with fire.

15:39 I wish it weren't the case.

15:42 The idea that we were advocating for gerrymandering,

15:46 the fact that we were advocating

15:48 for literally politicizing and choosing voters shows

15:52 you how precious again and profound

15:55 and consequential this moment is in our republic.

16:03 So, you mentioned that that was a preview of things to come and you repeated

16:08 that line and I think that that line is is a is important to have repeated.

16:12 Do you think that that's gotten through

16:14 to everybody else in the Democratic party?

16:16 Because, you know, you also mentioned at the top that it is very

16:19 of the Democratic party to write an op-ed in the New York Times.

16:22 I said to write a strongly worded letter

16:24 and that feels like the Democratic party that I've always known.

16:27 this idea that, you know,

16:28 as long as we just kind of um expect democracy to work or or or confer

16:36 some degree of goodwill to the other side that maybe it'll be reciprocated.

16:39 Do you think that the gravity of this moment has gotten through to the rest

16:43 of the party because not every governor in this country

16:46 is going to be you or Mora Hilly?

16:49 You know, we should be so lucky, but they're not.

16:51 And so, do you think it's gotten through?

16:55 It's getting through.

16:57 Look, these guys are ruthless.

16:59 We're trying to again win arguments.

17:01 They're consolidating power enough.

17:05 And the asymmetry is real.

17:07 These propaganda networks, the prime time lineup at Fox.

17:10 I'll just remind you, you know this, that Laura Ingram herself is

17:14 a partner in a business deal with Donald Trump Jr.

17:20 I mean, it's Pravda.

17:22 What's happening in Sinclair?

17:23 for One American News Newsmax.

17:25 The asymmetry in terms of their ability

17:27 to flood the zone and communicate is extraordinary.

17:30 And so again, for things to change, I'll keep saying it, we have to change.

17:35 It's not what happens to us, it's how we respond to what happens to it.

17:39 And so we need to change our tactics.

17:41 And you're seeing it.

17:42 I you've we saw JB do I mean, he did a remarkable job.

17:46 We were just with him in Chicago in response to what happened again

17:49 in the preview of what was to come in Chicago after what happened in DC.

17:54 And of course, you saw the same with Governor Waltz.

17:56 And I never thought, I'll tell you again,

17:58 never thought I'd get a call like this.

18:01 Just a few months ago, I get a call from Waltz and I'm like, "How you doing,

18:04 pal?" He's like, "Hey,

18:05 I thought it would be you first." He tells me, but it's me.

18:09 Uh, I could use a little help.

18:11 I said, "Whatever you need." He goes,

18:12 "For my legal defense fund." a sitting governor calling another

18:17 governor quite literally to raise money because he's under criminal indictment

18:21 by Donald Trump says isn't the mayor we forgot about

18:24 that these guys are not screwing around you think for a second

18:29 that's not likely to happen out on the west coast

18:33 this is different he's an invasive species and and so you

18:42 know if nothing else Brian it's awakening up our immune system

18:46 and and it's all it's so often the case, isn't it?

18:49 I mean, it's you know how many extraordinary

18:51 moments you've had up here with historians and authors.

18:53 It's always the case.

18:54 It's the people first.

18:56 You know, Justice Brandis most important office uh is the office of citizen.

19:02 It's not president, governor, mayor.

19:04 Office active, not inert citizenship.

19:07 And you're seeing that the no kings rallies.

19:09 You saw it in that second one.

19:11 people what you saw in the steel spines of the folks in Minnesota.

19:15 That's why Trump's in retreat.

19:16 That's why Christy Gnome was just fired.

19:19 Was those folks.

19:20 It was you.

19:21 All of you standing up meeting this moment.

19:25 So yes, I think the me we're we're getting the message

19:31 and there are a lot more messengers and I think there's

19:33 a lot more activity and action and passion in the spirit

19:36 of Oliver Wendell Holmes uh that is being shared all across this country.

19:40 To what extent do you think that the fact

19:43 Trump and his acolytes feel so emboldened to act

19:46 the way that they are that that's born out

19:48 of an unwillingness to hold them to account the first time?

19:54 Look, you know, I think about, you know, Trump is Trump,

20:00 but you know, Speaker Johnson, you know, Lindsey Graham.

20:07 I thought the two most effective anti-Trump surrogates was guy named JD.

20:12 Vance and Marco Rubio.

20:16 But I, you know, this and we've talked about this.

20:18 I I've gotten so frustrated that, you know, I even put up a Patriot site.

20:26 You can go online and on my Patriot site, I sell knee pads.

20:33 Uh, and the good news, Brian,

20:35 is we have a we have new Trump Signature Series knee pads.

20:39 Uh, the old ones sold out just like our law firms are selling out,

20:46 just like our universities have sold out,

20:48 just like corporate leaders are sold out,

20:49 just like members of the media have sold out.

20:52 And they've got to be called out, I'm sorry, will lose this country.

20:58 the complicity at this moment trying to make a deal

21:03 with Donald Trump or those that are also complicit.

21:06 They're putting their head down and hoping it just all goes away.

21:10 I mean, we we I just left Jesse

21:13 Jackson's memorial talking about this notion we have agency.

21:16 We can shape the future.

21:18 We're not bystanders of the future.

21:19 The future's not in front of us.

21:21 It's inside of us.

21:22 It's decisions, not conditions, that determine our fate and m and future.

21:26 That's the spirit the vernacular s that's the spirit of Kennedy

21:30 spirit of the 60s you know how you solve for ignorance

21:33 and poverty and disease and and so I think it's the spirit

21:37 that defines this moment so that complicity also needs to be

21:40 called out much more aggressively because at the end of the day

21:44 my summation of Trump is it's really not complicated it's

21:48 a corruption story everything connects to that just like the tariffs he

21:55 had to come face to face with a co-equal branch of government.

21:58 It was a bit of a shock, wasn't it?

21:59 You saw that press conference last Friday or the Friday before.

22:02 And it wasn't about our country as much as it was about his personal portfolio.

22:10 And you think again I'm overstating it.

22:12 Just consider the tariffs dropped 26% in Vietnam right after

22:17 the Vietnamese approved the $1.5 billion golf course and development.

22:24 That's what the IE pay meant to Trump.

22:27 It's about his personal portfolio.

22:29 And you say, "Well, that hold on, that's not fair." Well, let's go to the UAE.

22:33 Let's talk about the $2 billion there.

22:36 World Liberty Financial.

22:38 Let's talk about the high-valued chips that were

22:40 sent in return for the $2 billion.

22:44 This is a grift the likes of which we've never

22:47 experienced in history of this country at a scale unprecedented.

22:52 And all these guys want to get in on it.

22:56 Every one of these foreign trips, who is the first envoys out there?

23:01 Members of the family, people in business.

23:05 What's this?

23:06 Board a piece.

23:08 It's about getting a piece of the Middle.

23:12 Come on.

23:13 You got to call this out.

23:14 It's not complicated in plain sight.

23:18 And there's a timidity, you know, Bobby's language.

23:22 You know the world needs are the qualities of youth,

23:24 not a time of life, a state of mind, a quality of imagination predominance.

23:28 It's a courage over love of ease.

23:29 This notion of you courage over love of ease at this moment.

23:34 And and so again, forgive, you know, my mom, I wrote about her in this book,

23:39 who's passed away 20 years ago,

23:40 she'd probably be washing my mouth out with soap.

23:44 Uh, and forgive me, Mom,

23:45 but I just feel like this moment requires us to radically shift.

23:52 Conventional politics no longer applies.

24:04 To that end, I want to read an excerpt.

24:06 And you and I have spoken about this particular excerpt before,

24:08 and this was right in the leadup to uh to the first

24:13 uh same-sex marriage that that you would be responsible for.

24:16 And this is what one of your campaign consultants said to you.

24:19 Quote, speaking uh while we're talking about

24:22 uh uh cleaning your mouth out with soap, quote, "What the are you doing here?

24:26 Why did we work so hard to win if you can't do something bold?" He asked,

24:29 "This is a short life, Gavin.

24:31 your time as a politician to get things done is just a blip.

24:34 And so, while we're talking about doing something bold,

24:37 what does that look like in 2026 in in in very much the same

24:41 way that that you know when when this took place uh decades ago,

24:45 that was the bold movement.

24:47 Look, I mean, it's all about 2026.

24:50 I I it's exhausting this guy or gal on the white

24:54 horse that's going to come save the day in 2028.

24:59 It's all about 2026.

25:03 There may not be a 2028 as we know it.

25:07 There may not be I and again that I mean there'll be an election,

25:11 you know, you know, competitive authoritarians love elections.

25:15 I think Putin, you may Google this.

25:17 I think it was 83 point or 87.3% I think is what he did.

25:22 Yeah.

25:23 Someone got 4.3 or something below him.

25:26 That's the kind of election that we may have if we don't

25:29 take back the House of Representatives and dare I say now take

25:33 back the United States Senate this November which is in play

25:38 in a big big way and so it's look my the big and it

25:43 goes to the you know and I get the friction of what

25:46 happened in 2004 and you know we were barely even debating civil

25:50 unions back then and I kind of took a leap of fate

25:52 and you know Massachusetts was a big part of that as well.

25:55 you did as well.

25:56 I think we share that in so many ways in common.

25:59 Um, and it, you know,

26:00 it was an audacious move and there was a lot of critique and criticism and a lot

26:03 of punditry and it was a lot of soulsearching

26:06 for me and I talk a lot about that.

26:07 It was universally condemned by members of my party.

26:11 Um, you know, my family, my dad tried to talk me out.

26:16 I write about it in the book.

26:17 There's a scene with he and my uncle and they had

26:19 an intervention the night before trying to talk me out of it.

26:22 old Irish Catholic family, west side, San Francisco.

26:27 Dad used to go and grew up uh down in the Marina district.

26:30 And you know, his mom and dad every morning got all six

26:34 brothers and sisters dressed up to go to church every single day.

26:38 This is not even in the black and white movie days.

26:39 It feels like yesterday.

26:41 That was my father.

26:43 And here was his son pursuing the dreams he never achieved.

26:50 After trying to run for county supervisor and losing,

26:54 turning around in 1968 and running for state senate

26:59 and losing with the help then of Bobby Kennedy.

27:02 We have these campaign photos from that time.

27:08 and he lost both races and was broke and broken and took off leaving

27:16 my mom 19 when she had me two years later with two kids on her own.

27:24 Um came back eventually but wasn't there in the beginning.

27:28 I was pursuing his unfinished work.

27:32 And so I got elected as the youngest mayor in a hundred years.

27:35 And you know, he's you know doing the you

27:37 know Jimmy Gleason thing how sweet it is.

27:40 And I'm like dad this we should start marrying same-sex couples.

27:44 Didn't go over very well as you can imagine.

27:46 Uh and uh you know there's a scene where I was

27:50 debating it with him and and this fierce advocate for justice,

27:53 one of the nation's great trial attorneys, Joe Cached, his best friend.

27:57 and and Joe was trying to debate me as he does with everybody.

28:01 Um, and I said, "Joe, I I I I give up.

28:04 I I don't know what else to say except, you know,

28:06 I'm doing it because it's the right thing to do." And and that's

28:10 literally when he turned to my dad and uncle, he said, "Boys,

28:13 will he'll be doing this tomorrow because it's the right thing to do." And we

28:17 moved forward and married 4,036 couples from 46

28:20 states in six countries in that winter, not summer, of love in San Francisco.

28:26 And it was glorious and extraordinary,

28:28 but it was also extraordinary the, you know,

28:31 self-doubt that came with that afterwards and sort of the reflection

28:35 of my own complicity and sort of the mat,

28:38 you know, in the mega political moment.

28:40 Sort of the beginner's mind, the naive perhaps I had.

28:44 If I knew what I knew, I probably wouldn't have done it.

28:47 There's something about the beginner's mind.

28:48 The Roger Banister theory of life,

28:50 the guy who broke the four-minute mile because he didn't know he couldn't.

28:54 Everyone else was an expert.

28:56 They knew that the human body didn't move that fast

28:59 and and so you know I think what it represented though was conviction

29:04 to your question I'm coming back to that whether you agreed or disagreed

29:09 and this notion of conviction is also a strength and I think

29:12 for our party the last year few it's a sense our party

29:18 back again I said a moment ago is weak I was just

29:22 with Bill Clinton and Hillary and you remember what Clinton said years

29:24 ago when we got schlacked one of those midterms many moons ago.

29:27 He said, "Given the choice,

29:29 the American people always support strong and wrong versus weak

29:34 and right." And there is something about just strength and conviction.

29:38 Yes, we want to be strong and right.

29:40 That's the sweet spot.

29:42 But having the courage of your convictions,

29:44 being able to get out there and sell them,

29:48 be out there selling it every day to flood the zone to make the case,

29:52 but to have the courage of your convictions to share that.

29:56 And uh and finding that eco weight, I think, is how not only we get back,

30:00 though I'm confident in 2026, but we get back that mojo, you know.

30:06 I think that that sense, you know, and forgive me, I I'm just you you guys,

30:10 some of you know this and my staff certainly know this is like you

30:14 don't even know what I'm serious like what being here for a guy like me,

30:20 you know, and I write about not, you know,

30:22 I don't read speeches because I can't read speeches,

30:25 but I read, but I can't deliver speeches that I read.

30:29 and just you know how Sarver and Bobby and JFK like like why I'm here.

30:36 It's reflected in my father and you know so the fact

30:39 that I'm here having this conversation is is is it is extraordinary.

30:46 But I say out to make this what's so evocative

30:50 of this is the thing that's the hardest thing you

30:52 know and I've tried this as mayor as a county

30:56 supervisor as lieutenant governor governor you can't legislate spirit you can't

31:00 legislate pride you know and sort of the vernacular

31:04 that defines this hollow ground and this notion of going

31:07 on a journey together and and I just think that's

31:10 the language we need again this notion of going on a journey

31:14 together a journey where everyone sees themselves and they part

31:17 of it and um and I think that's the spirit

31:20 that's that's strength and that's not power dominance and aggressive

31:25 aggression that's not Trump's version of strength that's the strength

31:30 defined by the people that all the preachers we're talking

31:34 about today King and Gandhi and Mandela and Havl you

31:38 know Cesar Chavez that shared their moral authority it's about

31:43 moral authority and and if we can use our moral authority,

31:49 we'll gain back the formal authority.

31:51 Uh, and I'm confident in not only 2026 but also 2028.

32:05 So, you spoke about this idea of redefining what the Democrats stand for.

32:10 Right now we're in a moment where it's kind of uncertain

32:12 what the Republicans stand for other than blind devotion to Trump.

32:16 But I mean this is this is a guy who himself had

32:18 campaigned on this idea that he wanted to enter no new wars.

32:21 Here we are in a new war every week.

32:23 Uh a guy who campaigned on bringing costs down thanks to his trade war.

32:27 Costs are surging.

32:29 Uh h how do you think about what

32:31 the Republican party stands for moving forward given the fact

32:34 that they've been perfectly content to shed every purported

32:37 ideal they've had in the leadup to this moment?

32:40 Well, they're supine.

32:42 There's no Republican party back to this invasive species construct.

32:47 They don't exist.

32:48 And it's remarkable.

32:49 I mean, you have Ronald Reagan.

32:50 I'm I walk into Ronald Reagan's old office every day when I'm at work.

32:54 Governor Ronald Reagan.

32:56 I mean, he's looking down literally, not just figuratively,

32:58 his painting on Donald Trump in the Oval Office.

33:02 Uh, I don't I has nothing in common with this.

33:06 I This is a guy Trump who said he was going to make us wealthier and healthier.

33:09 We're quite literally sicker and poorer.

33:13 You saw the jobs numbers today, down 92,000.

33:15 We lost over 100,000 manufacturing jobs in the last 12 months.

33:18 1.4% uh GDP uh contract now starting to slow down.

33:23 We saw one of the worst jobs growth

33:25 years that we've had since recession, roughly 2013.

33:30 Um, speaking of 13, I mean, not even 13 cents today.

33:33 I saw it was 37 cents overall.

33:36 Gas prices have increased week over week.

33:37 And if you're in Indiana, it's 47 cents.

33:39 West Virginia 47 cents in just one week.

33:43 There was the energy minister at Qatar.

33:46 They had their largest LG facility that was just taken out.

33:51 The second largest LG exporter in the world.

33:53 Their largest LG facility was just taken out by an Iranian drone.

33:57 And he talked about his words and the FT this morning, $150 a barrel of oil.

34:05 You talk about wrecking ball presidency.

34:10 I mean certainly reflected symbolically and substantly in the Imperial

34:14 Palace that he's trying or the Kremlin West Wing that he's

34:17 trying to recreate and that's all all this has Donald Trump

34:23 is you know it's all about destruction and destruction is not

34:27 strength he's not a builder you know Sam Ryurn what you

34:32 that you know I was like remember years ago I was

34:35 like who's this Ryurn guy says well he had a great

34:37 quote I always remember the quote when I was a did.

34:39 He goes, "You know, any jack house,

34:41 any jackass can, you know, knock down a barn.

34:45 It takes a skilled carpenter to build one.

34:50 Forgive me, but Donald Trump is a jackass.

34:55 I believe that." And and it's the only thing it has in common.

35:02 Institutions, truth, trust.

35:04 I don't even have to get to Kennedy stuff.

35:05 Come let's let's go down the list.

35:07 These guys are rewriting history, censoring historical facts.

35:10 They want to bring us back to a pre-1960s world.

35:13 America in reverse.

35:14 LGBTQ rights, women's rights.

35:16 I mean, we've seen it on civil rights, and now voting rights across the board.

35:19 It's happening in real time.

35:21 That's why states matter.

35:22 And I want to just thank your state governor uh

35:25 for I guess she's must have written a book because

35:27 I think you must have learned or she could have

35:30 in the time that you spent together talking about that.

35:32 But more how important she is and how important governors are.

35:35 states are on the front lines of all of these battles,

35:39 but we all are now in this consequential moment.

35:42 And so, no, I don't I I do not know what Donald Trump stands for right now.

35:46 He stands for Donald Trump.

35:48 And and that's that's at the essence of almost everything.

35:52 And we've talked about the Epstein files.

35:54 We don't want to go down that dark hole.

35:57 But that's also reflected in what that's all about as well.

36:02 It's about him.

36:03 something about those files and him.

36:07 You don't care about laying anybody out.

36:11 So, who is he protecting?

36:12 We know he's protecting himself.

36:16 There was a really interesting part of the book

36:17 where you discussed your meeting uh with Donald Trump,

36:20 going on a plane with him, having phone calls with him.

36:23 What struck me about about that part of the book is it didn't feel like

36:29 it felt like there was two distinct personas

36:31 between the public one and the private one.

36:34 And so can you speak a little bit about

36:35 about who he who he pretends to be in public?

36:39 Whether you think that there is some legitimacy

36:41 behind that and who he is in private.

36:46 I'll talk to you about who he tried to call on Air Force One.

36:49 Oh, thank God she didn't answer.

36:52 Uh that would not have gone well.

36:54 I'd have been kicked off the plane.

36:56 Um I got a call.

36:59 This would this is a more contemporary call

37:01 and I'll go back briefly to what's in the book.

37:03 In this book, by the way, if if if you were coming to get a book about

37:06 10point plan to restore America's soul and future uh and a comeback,

37:10 that is definitely you're at the wrong venue.

37:13 Uh it is not this book.

37:15 Uh if you came to read a book

37:18 that was some sanitized version uh of a political life,

37:23 this is not that book either.

37:26 Uh this is the op.

37:28 It's just if you don't like me,

37:31 you should buy this in bulk with the one exception.

37:39 I wrote a book that went up to when my father, God bless him,

37:45 he he lasted long enough to see his son get elected governor.

37:51 He was in a wheelchair on election night, passed away a few weeks later.

37:54 Didn't see me get sworn in, but boy, he was there.

37:57 And what a what a night that was for me.

38:00 And that's where the book was going to end.

38:02 Um, but the fires last year,

38:05 I was going to release this last year in Los Angeles,

38:09 required an an extension of the book because I met Donald Trump

38:15 as governor elect after the most

38:19 devastating and deadly wildfire in American history, Paradise, California.

38:23 Uh, right before I got sworn in as governor,

38:26 when Jerry Brown was governor of California.

38:28 And I described that trip in detail and it marks our relationship which is

38:34 an interesting one and let me highlight

38:36 that the night before he federalized 4,000 National Guard.

38:42 Remember that all happened in California first.

38:44 So much of this is happening in California first.

38:47 His efforts to try to get and purge

38:49 the voting rolls happened in our state first.

38:51 Even before Pam Bondi demanded them

38:54 as an extraction payment to get the National Guard,

38:57 or rather get ICE out of Minnesota, they had already demanded that of us

39:03 and a number of other states many, many months ago.

39:05 Donald Trump demanded my attention on a night that I'll never forget.

39:11 At 10:30, 11 o'clock, I'm getting this strange phone call,

39:15 miss call, miss call, miss call from some place in Florida.

39:20 And I It just couldn't be right.

39:26 It's 10:30.

39:27 I'm doing the math.

39:28 I'm, you know, I may have dyslexia, but I can still count.

39:31 Uh, which I'd love to get into.

39:35 Um, not the counting part, the dyslexia.

39:38 Um, and I I texted Susie Wilds and she goes, "Yes, call them." So,

39:44 I call it and this was when there was we had a modest incident in Southern.

39:50 They colored it in.

39:51 It was It was an incident legit,

39:53 but they really covered it on, you know, Hannity at Fox uh in Los Angeles.

39:58 And Trump called me presumably to talk about LA.

40:01 I jump right into LA.

40:02 He cuts me off.

40:03 Goes, "What do you think of new scum?" His nickname for me.

40:08 I'm like, "New scum?" He go,

40:10 and then I'm about to say, he says, "Pretty original, right?

40:12 Pretty original." I said, "Original?" I said, "Not original.

40:15 I just wrote a I literally told him I said, "I just wrote a book.

40:18 There's an eighth grade bully that called me new scum.

40:21 It's in the book.

40:22 Um, and he goes, "Oh, no." You know, he goes, "Well, what about mega?

40:24 What about mega?" I said, "What about it?" I said,

40:26 "Are you are we seriously having this convers?" He goes,

40:30 "Pretty good, right?" I said, "Well, no.

40:32 Reagan kind of had that, too, and it's not original." He goes, "Well,

40:35 how many hats you think I sold last month?"

40:38 It is 1:30 in the morning, Mara Lago time.

40:44 I don't know how many true socials he was in.

40:48 at that hour.

40:49 Uh but apparently he sold about 211,000 hats.

40:53 I was like, "Wow, that's actually impressive."

40:57 And the whole conversation got even more curious.

41:01 We he said he starts talking about how he won the debate against Kamala.

41:04 I'm like, "No, you didn't." And he said it was four against one.

41:09 And I said, "I thought there was just only two hosts." He goes,

41:11 "Well, the cameramen." The cameramen.

41:14 So anyway, 17 minutes later, and by the way, if you think I'm making this up,

41:19 uh uh there was an oversight committee

41:22 that demanded my notes on this conversation.

41:26 I literally am not making any of that up.

41:30 About 18 hours later, the next day, there's a truth social say,

41:34 I read Nuome the riot act, and I am federalizing 4,000 National Guard.

41:41 It was 2,000, then eventually 20,000.

41:43 But what the hell is this?

41:44 That's Donald Trump.

41:47 That's the Trump in the book.

41:49 That's the guy slapping me on the leg saying in front of Jared Kushner.

41:54 Kushner, you were not my first choice.

41:56 Tom Brady was right in front of Kushner gives a whole long story.

42:03 I thought it was kind of a joke and then I'm like,

42:05 "Oh god, are you serious?" Literally, you should read if for nothing else.

42:11 you know, know your audience.

42:13 You may want to read that.

42:15 But he was trying to read me and I was trying to read him, sizing each other up.

42:21 You know, we're we're then and we land on Marine One

42:26 and Marines are walking up like this and Trump hits me.

42:29 He goes, I'm right there.

42:31 Marines are about to open the door.

42:32 He goes, "Swezman, swordsman doesn't get this." Some of you know Schwarzman

42:38 is guy he's always competed with to be as wealthy as Schwarzman.

42:45 We get on Air Force One.

42:46 He starts petting the side of the plane.

42:48 Goes amazing.

42:50 I said, "It's amazing, sir.

42:52 You're amazing, sir." Is what he was looking for.

42:58 You know, we walk in the bedroom and I'm like,

43:00 "No other president would ever do this." I don't know

43:04 that I want to go in the bedroom with any other president.

43:09 And it was really incredible.

43:10 And then we went back and did a press conference and the I didn't

43:13 know he could do press conference and now you see it all the time.

43:15 It was it was amazing.

43:17 Called me the next day, you know,

43:20 I describe after I took a little shot on my inaugural

43:25 and he calls me and he honestly it's in the book.

43:28 He he expressed being almost hurt.

43:31 I'm like whoa.

43:32 And I was I was ready to apologize.

43:34 Said I didn't.

43:35 It was just a oblique, you know.

43:37 Yeah.

43:38 And he goes, "Well, we're all good.

43:39 We're all good.

43:40 We're good." And then he said then he starts talking about my family

43:43 and my kids and said something you shouldn't say about someone's wife.

43:48 That's Donald Trump.

43:51 And and every foreign leader knows this.

43:55 You can spin them on your finger.

43:58 The most easily manipulated.

43:59 I mean, it's alarming.

44:02 It's alarming.

44:05 And so it's all about that transaction.

44:07 It's all about that relationship.

44:09 He's a broken man that tried to break this country.

44:13 It's not complicated.

44:15 And that's why again we have to remain vigilant because this is

44:20 a guy who's it's he's been exposed weakness masquerading as strength.

44:27 you know, with respect and forgive, you know, forgive me,

44:30 but you know, between he and Besset, it's dumb and dumber right now.

44:34 These guys, I mean, this has been a this this thing is collapsing all around us.

44:40 You know, I live in the MAG 7 West Coast

44:43 that's kind of holding up this whole market, all the capex.

44:47 You know, I'm out there in a state where

44:50 his state of mind is to take 10% tithing from Intel.

44:54 I thought I I I remembered Ronald Reagan out there with, you know,

44:58 Thatcher talking about, you know, free enterprises,

45:02 a healthy horse pulling a sturdy wagon.

45:06 Now it's state capitalism, 25% AMD, 25% Nvidia, MP materials, golden shares,

45:14 or a golden iPhone to avoid a drop in your shares by getting a tariff exemption.

45:22 This is different.

45:23 And so that relationship that was formed then

45:27 allowed me to navigate during COVID in a way

45:30 where we actually got along remarkably and allowed

45:34 me to navigate up into that phone call.

45:37 But when he drew that line and and it felt like he

45:43 declared war on an American city in Los Angeles la last June,

45:49 that's when I recognized I had to radically change.

45:53 And you saw it and forgive me back to, you know,

45:56 soap in the mouth washing it out.

45:58 My social media shifted as well.

46:02 And if you haven't noticed, you know, yeah, not many people were apologizing,

46:08 applauding then, but I just thought I'd put a mirror up to this.

46:11 How has this been allowed to be normalized?

46:13 This normalization of deviency.

46:16 How are we not calling this all cap out?

46:20 How can he cosplay literally dress up as the Pope?

46:25 Like dressed up as a Pope, dressed up as Superman.

46:29 He put his picture up there on Mount Rushmore.

46:31 So, I decided to start doing it as well.

46:34 And so offended.

46:36 So offended was the prime time lineup at Fox.

46:40 So offended was the five.

46:43 How could a governor do this?

46:44 It's so unbecoming.

46:46 Jesse, what do you say?

46:50 So situationally unaware of how complicit they all have been at this moment.

47:00 We don't want to be in peril being judged not to have lived in this moment.

47:04 And so all of us, we need to put that mirror up.

47:06 We need, you know, otherwise we put a mask

47:09 on and our face is going to grow into it.

47:11 We won't even recognize ourselves, not just our country.

47:14 And we can do it with a little sense of humor.

47:17 And I think with Trump, going to your point,

47:20 and again, forgive the long- windedness,

47:22 there is a there's a sort of, you know, back and forth.

47:26 He's got a sense of humor, remarkably personable.

47:30 I spent 90 minutes with him in the Oval Office after I uninvited,

47:34 though I finally got invited.

47:35 I kind of pushed myself onto the tarmac in LA

47:38 um where he was very gracious and um and I invited

47:41 myself to the Oval Office um a month later and it

47:45 was 90 minutes of sort of banter back and forth.

47:48 Um, but I realized and you know and we all do.

47:53 You you don't work with Donald Trump.

47:57 You can only work for him.

47:59 And I have no interest in working for Donald Trump.

48:02 That's the red line that will never be crossed.

48:11 While we're on the subject of weird relationships, Kimberly Gilfoil.

48:17 Okay.

48:17 Oh jeez.

48:19 Look, I y'all seem to know a lot more about that than most things.

48:22 That's interesting.

48:24 I I have spent the last week trying

48:25 to figure out what the question would be here.

48:28 I know that I wanted to ask You must have had something to drink.

48:31 That took some courage to bring this up.

48:33 Well, I didn't see Jen, so I figured my wife's not here.

48:37 So, by the way, just on that so I can try to distract him

48:42 and he may forget the question he was about to ask.

48:44 So, we're on Air Force One.

48:46 I get the royal tour.

48:47 It was amazing.

48:48 He was incredibly gracious.

48:49 He really was.

48:50 And he was treating everyone rather graciously as well.

48:53 It was sort of a mark of interesting character

48:56 trait that I never seen and haven't seen since.

48:59 Um, in terms of how he treated, you know,

49:01 the pilots and everybody and how gracious he seemed to be with the staff.

49:05 Um, but he really wanted me to call my wife.

49:09 And I don't know if any, you know, some of you maybe had the privilege.

49:12 I had never been on Air Force One.

49:14 I figured you just pick up the phone and dial.

49:16 That doesn't work.

49:16 There's some operator back like some old day

49:18 movie and it's like and I'm like oh gosh, not Jen, not my wife.

49:26 She was not happy I was with Trump.

49:28 And he's standing right above me waiting for the operators to say,

49:33 "Sir, we have Jen Sevil Newsome on the phone." And we waited.

49:37 I'm like, "Okay, well, we're watching Fox News and he's you and I'm like,

49:43 "Sir, she's not available." I'm like, "Oh, that's really too bad." That's uh uh

49:48 and u luckily I ended up having to call.

49:50 He said, "Call someone else." I ended up calling

49:52 my sister and he got bored with me and walked away.

49:54 I said, "Hillary, um thank you.

49:56 Just you're good.

49:57 Good.

49:57 Thanks.

49:57 Bye." Uh just forgive me, but you were saying about Kimberly.

50:02 So, on the topic of unfortunate relationships,

50:06 um what how like uh was she always is this an act?

50:13 How did this happen?

50:14 I mean, the the the the gulf between you and her.

50:20 Yeah.

50:20 Well, I you know, I'm young man in a hurry.

50:23 She was a young woman in a hurry.

50:26 She uh pretty fierce prosecutor.

50:29 Um was in LA, made her way to San Francisco.

50:33 Um a lot of crosscurrens with Kamla and DA's off.

50:37 I mean, it's interesting.

50:39 And you know, I was sworn in as mayor the same day Kamla was sworn in DA.

50:42 We walked across the street for her swearing in and you

50:45 know we were all in this sort of friends group.

50:48 um and um friendmies group not with Kamla but with Kimberly

50:53 and Kla uh and she was a very effective prosecutor

50:58 and there's a famous um dog mauling case uh where court

51:02 TV was starting to assert itself and she was on there

51:05 a number of times because she was prosecuting that case

51:07 with a co-prosecutor deputy DA and it was a very high-profile case

51:12 was getting a lot of national attention and she started getting

51:14 a lot of national attention and she seemed quite gifted on TV.

51:18 So much so that Roger Als eventually called her after she went

51:23 to work part-time for Court TV and then part-time full-time uh at Fox.

51:31 Uh we just got I got just got elected mayor.

51:34 She just gets the job from ALS.

51:36 That's not a relationship that's going to last.

51:39 But she always had that prosecutorial energy.

51:42 She had an amazing father.

51:43 Mom died very young in Puerto Rico.

51:46 dad from Ireland and he was just this you know

51:49 just bluecollar worked for PG Genie just hard work contractor part-time

51:54 and just raised his two kids after his wife died very

51:57 young to be tough that's who she is um but talking about

52:03 a mask you don't get to go on Fox for very

52:05 long without putting that mask and that face grows into it

52:09 pretty quickly and that's what happened from my perspective and then

52:14 she you know presumably guessed They must have fallen in love.

52:17 Donald Trump Jr.

52:19 where they were engaged and you just can't make that up, you know,

52:23 former first lady of San Francisco engaged to, you know,

52:27 and as we're going back and forth.

52:28 So, it's been a hell of a, you know,

52:32 it's uh it's not easy to talk about these things

52:35 and it was a hell of a thing trying to edit

52:38 what I wanted to say about this uh in the book

52:41 knowing that my wife was likely to read it.

52:44 So, it's a But it's you know but I write about it and I try

52:48 to be honest about it and I also you know you know you know I'm

52:52 married in the church you know you know you feel like a failure and this book

52:57 is about failure it's about setbacks it's

53:00 not about triumphs it's about mistakes it's about

53:03 you know it's hardly about you know

53:05 perfection I think if there's anything maybe it's

53:08 about perseverance it's about discovery young man

53:10 in a hurry you know became a memoir

53:13 of discovery the subhug line because I wrote a book that I couldn't go back

53:21 and talk about my life to my mom and dad because they were no longer here.

53:26 And so I had to go back and I had

53:28 to start to learn about things I never knew about them.

53:31 Secrets they never shared including a why they got divorced.

53:34 I found out about that in the process of writing the book.

53:37 They never told me why they got divorced.

53:39 I never understood why my father left.

53:41 I never understood my mom's relationship to her father who took

53:47 his life was a prisoner war corrior who put a gun

53:50 to her head when she was very young threatening to kill

53:53 her in a fit of rage of alcoholism again eventually taking his own life.

53:59 I never understood that connection.

54:01 I never understood how that shaped her and how

54:03 that shaped me and who I am today.

54:06 Single mom working two, three, sometimes four jobs.

54:09 And by the way, I described them in detail that none of that is exaggerated.

54:12 Who we had in our house our entire life.

54:15 There was always a stranger there because we were renting out rooms.

54:18 We were foster family growing up.

54:20 Just hard work.

54:22 Single moms.

54:22 Just single moms.

54:24 Oh my.

54:26 Single moms.

54:28 Not all the single moms out here.

54:30 And so in many ways, this became a love letter to her.

54:35 The things I can never say to her because I she's not around.

54:38 I I she never met my kids.

54:41 You know, I I talk about the day Trump called me.

54:44 There was a moment Oh, God.

54:46 You think about your mom, those moments,

54:48 the inaugural as a kid that struggled and still does with dyslexia.

54:53 And again, back to my inability to look down and read speeches.

54:57 Um, and how I felt like I was dumb.

55:01 And there was plenty of evidence to back that up.

55:04 and how my mom struggled with with a son who's struggling

55:08 and you know she told me some piercing words that I

55:11 write about in the book where she said it's okay

55:13 to be average and that did not sit well with me.

55:19 Um and in the process of writing I realized she was

55:21 just saying it's okay and I in the process of writing

55:25 this I forgave her and I keep forgiving you know

55:29 and and and so it's a journey but it was came to just

55:34 in intense terms the day of the inaugural and I'm reading

55:38 the only thing I can read which is a teleprompter speech and it's

55:41 you know they're not these are not speech these are not

55:45 memorable speeches my teleprompter speeches I'm sort of fixed on the words.

55:49 But I noticed the audience was not fixated on anything I

55:53 was saying because in the corner I'm seeing this shadow running around.

55:58 My three-year-old who was sitting in the front

56:02 row with his pacifier and his blanket.

56:05 Dutch Dutchy.

56:07 And the crowd is kind of laughing a little

56:09 bit and he's running away from my wife.

56:11 My wife's in a panic.

56:12 People all paying attention.

56:14 and he runs right up on stage as I'm speaking and bolts right

56:19 to my leg and I'm looking at the teleprompter and with our first

56:23 hundred days we will and people are like and I look down I'm

56:26 like and I of course pick him up and then what does he do?

56:31 puts his head right and you can look this up and I

56:35 have to give the speech with my son and I swear to you

56:40 to this day there's never been a speech people like I want

56:43 that speech again because they don't remember a damn thing that I

56:46 said it was just the way everyone felt and I and the way

56:50 I felt at that moment I was thinking oh if mom could

56:53 see this that's all she wanted for her son that connection you

56:59 know and so this book is about opportunity to make up for that.

57:05 You know, my dad never had that.

57:08 My dad was amazing.

57:09 I love my dad and I've never ever doubted he loved me.

57:12 Came back to my life much later.

57:14 Was a huge part of my life, but he never had that.

57:18 Was here maybe, but was never here.

57:20 The baritonial life.

57:24 And and that kind of love is to me the most important.

57:29 That's that's what this book is about.

57:31 All the mistakes I made and how I'm trying to make up for them.

57:35 I'm trying to be a better person.

57:37 This young man in a hurry was too focused on himself.

57:41 Was all about me, me, me.

57:44 And one of the most profound moments where

57:47 that just came crashing was when my mom and I write about this in the book where

57:52 I get a voice message and it's my mother.

57:56 Hi, it's your mother.

57:59 uh you may want to see me before next Thursday because that will be my last day.

58:07 Of course, I immediately then call my sister.

58:10 What What's going on?

58:12 And she says, "Well, what's going on is you're not paying attention to anything.

58:16 You're out there running around.

58:18 You've got this little small business.

58:19 You think you're all that as a county

58:21 supervisor and you haven't been paying attention to mom.

58:24 Breast cancer's come back." I said, "I know that." She goes,

58:27 "No, it's come back." I said, "But she's going to be fine.

58:30 She got this passed a year ago.

58:32 She came over it." She goes, "No,

58:35 she's doing an assisted suicide next Thursday." And by the way,

58:39 it was illegal in California at the time.

58:42 And I know this is an issue.

58:43 I trust me, I know the audience.

58:45 I get it.

58:47 And I didn't understand it.

58:49 And so I had to come to grips with kind of jerk I've been

58:54 running around all about me me and to spend those last precious days with her.

59:00 But I had to spend the last precious minutes and seconds with her.

59:04 Courageous doctors willing to lose his license.

59:08 And everybody said their goodbyes.

59:11 They're in the living room.

59:12 My sister and I are just with our mom.

59:14 And she's looking through all the old photos, those sort of 70s patina photos.

59:20 And the medicine's starting to doctor left.

59:23 Medicine's starting to And my sister's crying.

59:26 I'm crying.

59:27 And my sister looks at me.

59:28 I'm like, go.

59:29 It's okay.

59:30 And she bolts out.

59:32 And I'm stuck there.

59:33 I'm like, I don't know that I can do this much longer.

59:35 But she's still with us.

59:37 And I'm holding her hand.

59:39 And those last breath, nothing romantic about this.

59:42 I mean, talk about scars.

59:44 Like scars.

59:45 That last breath.

59:47 And then I just put my head down

59:50 on her stomach for about 20 minutes and I said all

59:53 the things I didn't even have the courage to say

59:54 20 minutes before just feeling the shame of that.

59:58 And it was just just wake up like who the hell am I becoming?

1:00:04 This is not why she lived and died for this this guy.

1:00:07 And so this is what this book's about.

1:00:10 I'm scrutinizing my life.

1:00:12 all the mistakes, all the insecurities,

1:00:15 all the anxieties I have sitting up here with you today.

1:00:18 Um, that mark who I am and and I'm

1:00:21 just trying to be a better person throughout all this.

1:00:24 And by the way, just something that may or may not resonate with you.

1:00:28 What a gift it was.

1:00:29 You know, my first year as governor to sign

1:00:32 a bill in her memory allowing it to be legal

1:00:35 in the state of California to at least allow

1:00:38 the grace of that journey that is unique for everybody.

1:00:44 And I I trust me, grew up in the church.

1:00:46 I get it how raw that is.

1:00:49 Um so that's that's a little bit of the journey I've been on.

1:00:53 and and and Kimberly was part of that journey.

1:00:55 Sincerely, Donald Trump's a big part of that journey.

1:00:58 You know, trials and triumphs.

1:01:00 It's just, you know, it's who we are.

1:01:01 It's being human.

1:01:05 Let it go.

1:01:06 Just let it go.

1:01:08 You know, I I think so much of the book was

1:01:11 about those fits and starts and there was so much awkwardness.

1:01:14 I you were really awkward for a lot of it,

1:01:18 but I think the the one part of the book that felt

1:01:20 different was when you were describing um your relationship with Jen.

1:01:24 And in that part, it was the only part I noticed

1:01:27 like and I sit I sat up while I was uh while

1:01:30 I was reading this part because it it that part flowed

1:01:33 so effortlessly in a way that the rest of the book didn't.

1:01:35 And and I think that's, you know,

1:01:37 inherently because that part is the part that worked.

1:01:40 And so I think that that that stuck

1:01:42 out and I think it's worth saying that because I love that

1:01:44 because I did like both because when you see Jen she's gonna you know.

1:01:48 Yeah.

1:01:49 So why so let the record show uh blind date when you give up you're like I'm

1:01:56 never you know it's like it's it's like such a cliche.

1:01:59 There's a reason cliches are cliches.

1:02:02 And it was a blind date.

1:02:03 She's two hours late.

1:02:04 I'm like give it's like what I was tonight.

1:02:07 And I'm like it's not going to work.

1:02:08 And I was like, "Okay,

1:02:10 hold on." And and we spend plutonic time together and everything's perfect.

1:02:22 See her a couple days later and then she says,

1:02:25 "I'm a Republican." I'm like, "Oh, come on.

1:02:29 Everything about you is perfect." And she goes, "Well,

1:02:33 it's just because my father is a Republican." Um, and he still is.

1:02:37 Um and she starts tell talking talking to me about

1:02:41 her life and her story and her journey and how she

1:02:44 lost her older sister to an accident and how it

1:02:46 shaped her and start you know her journey which I write

1:02:49 about and she was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein and u

1:02:54 and then assaulted again by a lawyer defending him disgraceful

1:02:58 lawyer tried to intimidate and shame her disgraceful no amount

1:03:03 of money the devil's advocate I'll never forgive him for that.

1:03:10 The courage of young women that do that.

1:03:12 And she's a fierce warrior for women and girls.

1:03:14 She's a feminist and she's been out there.

1:03:16 She did a documentary called Misrepresentation that Oprah bought about

1:03:19 the miss and under reppresentation of women and girls decades ago.

1:03:23 I'm so proud of her.

1:03:24 But there's a spirit in her because of what she went through.

1:03:29 And I describe and I love that you bring this up.

1:03:31 I describe watching her dance.

1:03:33 the first time I saw her dance.

1:03:34 Oh, and this freedom.

1:03:37 I mean, you just you see something,

1:03:39 it's like you talk about love and you all my West Coast friends,

1:03:43 you know, love and light and you're like, I don't understand that.

1:03:45 And then I see it.

1:03:46 I'm like, oh, love and light.

1:03:50 And she's just a bright light.

1:03:53 And you know, she set me straight.

1:03:55 She didn't know.

1:03:56 She's like, I love your dad.

1:03:57 She got to know my dad, but she's like,

1:03:59 "Are you going to be like your father was

1:04:04 as a husband?" She had to go through the Kimberly stuff.

1:04:09 She had to deal with a lot of that afterwards.

1:04:12 And um and we established that.

1:04:15 Then she wondered, "Well,

1:04:16 are you going to be your father again when it comes to our children?"

1:04:21 And um and so she took a leap of faith with me.

1:04:25 And so if I didn't describe her well, um, uh, that's an injustice.

1:04:31 And, um, and she is the rock and she's the constant.

1:04:35 Um, and, uh, I'm so in love and I'm so lucky.

1:04:40 And she gave me the most precious things in the world

1:04:42 that are the four that are I dedicate this to.

1:04:46 Uh, Brooklyn, Dutch, Hunter, and Montana.

1:04:49 And as I dedicate to them, may they continue this story.

1:04:54 I want to finish off with with the question I

1:05:01 get asked the most when I see people and I'm sure

1:05:03 a question that you have to face a lot when you

1:05:06 talk to people and that is are we going to be okay?

1:05:08 And so I want to take this opportunity while

1:05:11 I'm sure there's a lot of people in this audience,

1:05:13 a lot of people who are going to be

1:05:14 watching online who watch what we're contending with right now,

1:05:19 see the ways in which our democracy is

1:05:20 failing our our justice system is failing us

1:05:23 and you know obviously the apathy that that that we

1:05:26 contend with among our voter base as well.

1:05:28 And what do you say to folks who who ask are we going to be okay?

1:05:32 Ah, what a perfect question because it

1:05:34 was expressed all day today at the memorial.

1:05:38 We were talking about heirs, we're talking about Malcolm X,

1:05:40 we're talking about King, we're talking about Kennedy.

1:05:44 U we're talking about the 60s, how we were torn aunder in so many ways,

1:05:48 shapes, or form, even the early 70s.

1:05:51 And you know, I I come from a city, San Francisco, 196 earthquake and fire.

1:05:57 And our flag is the Phoenix.

1:06:01 the phoenix rising from the ashes.

1:06:04 Ah, that's the resilience we have as a nation.

1:06:08 Our capacity for renewal, rebirth.

1:06:11 Um, it's alive in all of us.

1:06:12 I mean, it's alive in all of you.

1:06:14 You haven't gotten the memo that you

1:06:16 shouldn't be here for yourself or each other.

1:06:19 You haven't dialed into the cynicism, the fear, and the anxiety.

1:06:22 You've had all this stacking of stress

1:06:24 that grace you haven't even given yourself.

1:06:26 This original book, by the way, this was not supposed to be a memoir.

1:06:29 I submitted this to Penguin Press and the great Ann got

1:06:32 off and she rejected my book and I thought she was

1:06:37 going to reject it because I had one chapter about my childhood

1:06:41 and the rest of it was about COVID and social unrest, supply chain issues, uh,

1:06:47 and my first two years with Trump and two years with Biden.

1:06:50 She goes, she goes, "I want the memoir."

1:06:56 And so I had to rewrite a brand new book.

1:07:02 But in the old book, I talk about our resiliency and I talk about

1:07:06 how we haven't given ourselves the grace to really

1:07:11 reflect on everything you guys have been through and gotten

1:07:14 through just in the last five or six year.

1:07:16 I would say since the escalator with Trump,

1:07:21 but what many of you have lived through going back decades and decades,

1:07:24 what our grandparents lived through,

1:07:26 what my grandfather lived through as a prisoner of war, you know,

1:07:30 my great great-grandfather lived through, you know,

1:07:33 during the Red Scare and I write

1:07:34 about his relationship to Oppenheimer and Lionus Pauline,

1:07:38 he was doc his doctor and um and all of that and all the FBI files.

1:07:42 It's so it echoes today and we're here.

1:07:47 We've had triumphs, not just tragedies, you know, since then.

1:07:51 And so I'm, you know, I'm deeply optimistic.

1:07:55 But again, it's in that spirit of, you know, the spirit of today that moved me.

1:08:00 It's, you know, as we pray, move our feet, right?

1:08:04 It's faith and works.

1:08:07 You know, we just can't I I love the candlelight visuals, but Not right now.

1:08:14 You know, I'm sorry.

1:08:15 We got to fight fire with fire.

1:08:18 We've got to be as ruthless but lovingly as they are.

1:08:25 They're not screwing around.

1:08:27 They're trying to break this country.

1:08:30 They're trying to break us.

1:08:31 Shock and awe.

1:08:33 Flooding the zone, dominating the nerve.

1:08:35 That's Trump's great strength is sussing

1:08:39 up your weakness and exploiting it 24/7.

1:08:43 He loves our indignation.

1:08:44 He loves our outrage.

1:08:47 All sort of folks on the dictatorial spectrum love that.

1:08:52 But they don't like the mockery.

1:08:55 They don't do well with humor.

1:08:58 Trump struggled a little bit with our social media.

1:09:01 It's gotten under their skin as we put that mirror up to their face.

1:09:07 And so I you know you you've all inspired us.

1:09:12 You know this Imperial presidency that's having a birthday party with a military

1:09:16 parade that's putting his beautiful photograph

1:09:18 on the side of the DOJ Bobby's building.

1:09:23 You know he's putting his name and gold everywhere.

1:09:28 Again that's weakness.

1:09:30 masquerading as strength.

1:09:32 And you are showing up and you keep showing up

1:09:36 over and over and over and over and over again.

1:09:40 And we're going to show up just like

1:09:42 they did in Texas in record numbers this week.

1:09:46 We're going to show up in record numbers this November.

1:09:49 And we're going to celebrate Speaker Jeff with the gavl.

1:09:54 And we're going to celebrate the beginning

1:09:55 of the renewal and rebirth of our country.

1:09:59 Governor Gavin Newsome.

1:10:00 Thank you guys so much.

1:10:01 Thank you for taking the time and still being here this late evening.