Newsom admits Democrats lost trust during COVID and haven’t recovered

California Gov. Gavin Newsom spoke with podcaster and academic Scott Galloway on Thursday about the Democratic Party’s major missteps in recent years that continue to damage its reputation.

on “Prof G Pod” podcastGalloway pointed to Los Angeles as an example: “Los Angeles seems to be a proxy for, if the Democrats can’t figure out a way to run the cities and govern them well, we’re going to have trouble across the entire federal stack electorally.”

While Newsom said progress was being made in California, he acknowledged that it wasn’t being seen or felt as much as it should.

“The ultimate manifestation of this failure is the byproduct of the affordability crisis, what is happening with street homelessness,” he said. “Unsheltered homelessness, the permissiveness that has peaked especially during and after COVID, especially with regard to encampments, tents set up in the streets and on sidewalks, the quality of life, the diminished quality of life and the idea that we can’t do anything about it.”

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Newsom argued that local leaders’ failure to act on the issue reflects “this kind of victim mentality that is almost universal for most leaders in local government.”

“We were somehow applying the standard that running over people on the streets and sidewalks in the name of their personal freedom was a compassionate act,” he said. “Essentially the degradation of communities, the businesses that were affected by it, the family structure – you know, the mother who just wanted to walk her child to the playground or to the stroller – was angry and angry and distrustful of the government.”

“And this is the issue that defines people’s anger. It’s the issue that defines my anger as administrator,” Newsom added. “Here’s the good news. Scott, for the first time in nearly two decades, no other governor has been able to say this in decades, we have seen a nearly double-digit decline in the number of unsheltered homeless people in the state of California.”

Galloway stated that he enjoys visiting the Los Angeles area, where he was born and raised, but usually stays in the “bubble” of a nice hotel where people come to visit him.

“Every time I step outside my bubble, extreme homelessness kind of shakes me,” she said.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom mocked some liberals’ belief that all Americans have the right to see homeless people languish in public spaces. (Qian Weizhong/VCG via Getty Images; Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

Newsom touted progress on the homeless issue in California, including Los Angeles, due to new policies in the state that did not exist six or seven years ago.

“Again, the state had no homeless strategy, no homeless plan. There wasn’t any for cities and counties,” he said, noting several reforms, including using more pressure to get people off the streets.

“And again, it’s a flywheel. There’s finally been progress, but you’re right, it’s a sign of a lot of anger and frustration, especially in L.A., the nation’s second largest city,” Newsom added.

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Homelessness has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Democratic cities. (Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Later in the conversation, Newsom was asked which of his actions during his governorship he was proud of and which he regretted.

“You know, I think the biggest problem with the Democratic Party is that we are rightfully perceived as too slow, too weak, too ineffective,” he said. “We must be more aggressive, stronger, more assertive, clearer, more confident.”

He also noted that Americans are becoming more wary of the government after experiencing missteps during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“You know, we lost a lot of confidence during Covid and we haven’t been able to get that back,” he said. “And I think we under-indexed how much has changed since COVID, and I was a little slow to realize how much had changed.”

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“So it’s not a specific action per se,” he said, trying to recall an action he was proud of or one that missed the mark. “But I think it’s a broader tonal appreciation that things have changed, but I haven’t changed to the degree that I need to change as the leader of the world’s fourth-largest economy. I’ve started to address that in much more substantive ways, but I think it’ll be something I’ll think about as a point of critique and evaluation.”