Ron DeSantis is “fundamentally authoritarian”, but Donald Trump’s quest for “vengeance” poses an even greater threat to democracy, California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom said on Sunday.

Newsom took aim at the leading two candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination during a hard-hitting and wide-ranging interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, the final episode with its long-time host Chuck Todd.

“I worry about democracy,” he said. “I worry about the fetishness for autocracy that we’re seeing not just from Trump, but around the world, and notably across this country.

“I’ve made the point about DeSantis that I think he’s functionally authoritarian. I’m worried more, in many respects, about Trumpism, which transcends well beyond his term and time in tenure.”

Newsom added: “The vengeance in Donald Trump’s heart right now is more of a threat.”

  • who8mydamnoreos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    68
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    GOP have been trying to make the president a king now for a while, they love everything about authoritarianism except the word itself.

    • PetDinosaurs@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      36
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      You know that Trump was the inspiration for Biff in Back to the Future, right?

      The former president of the US was the inspiration for a classic, 80s, time travel, sci-fi villain.

      I don’t have anything against newsome, but I couldn’t make anything worse up if I tried.

    • spider@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      I still can’t get over how much Newsom looks like

      …Mitt Romney

    • 41ZWJh7Mgg@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      24
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s cause he is that villain, he’s just good at pretending he’s progressive like when he promised universal healthcare when running for governor initially. Truth is he’s part of the wealthy elite Newsom family with ties to the Pelosi’s and oil baron Getty family.

      • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        26
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        The Public Policy Institute of California has recent survey data estimating that, in 2021, 2.7m Californians under 65 were uninsured out of a population of just under 40m.

        With Newsom’s new changes going into effect in a few months, about 700k new people will come eligible.

        It ain’t 100%, but at least he’s moving the ball down the court in significant chunks. California’s coverage rate has come up a LOT. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    ·
    1 year ago

    “Her term expires – she’s not running for re-election. So this time next year we’ll be in a very different place. I don’t want to make another appointment, and I don’t think the people of California want me to make another appointment.

    Excuse me, I’m a Californian and I want her ass outta there last week.

    • SpaceBar@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Dianne Feinstein is the majority vote on the judiciary committee. Her vote is the only reason liberal judges are being appointed.

      If she resigns, the committee goes to 50 - 50 Democrat / Republican. To replace her on the committee with someone appointed by Newsom, the Republicans would have to agree.

      There is ZERO chance Republicans would allow anyone to join the committee and break that 50/50 tie. Republicans only want conservative judges appointed.

      After the blatant partisan moves by Mitch McConnell with the Supreme Court, do you really think anything else would happen?

    • roguetrick@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      15
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      1 year ago

      When he says the people of California he means his donors, and when he says they don’t want him to make an appointment he means they have too many different people they want him to appoint and doing so would piss too many off.

      • gregorum@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        He just committed to not appointing anyone currently running for office, should Feinstein not finish her term for whatever reason.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    22
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    DeSantis and Trump are both catastrophically bad and pose existential threats to our democracy if they are elected. Some of those reasons overlap; some are unique.

  • 30mag@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    If Trump does win the 2024 general election, Newsom said, he would work with his administration for the sake of California residents, as he said he did during the Covid-19 pandemic.

    “At the end of the day, these are the cards that are dealt. And I want to do the best for the people that I represent, 40 million Americans that happen to live in California,” he told Todd, who is standing down as host of Meet the Press after almost a decade.

    Many support him. I’m not going to oppose someone just to oppose them – I don’t come into a relationship with closed fists, but an open hand. I call balls and strikes, and few people were more aggressive at calling balls and strikes against Donald Trump. I called California the most un-Trump state in America, and I hold to that.”

    I don’t know what to make of Newsom. He has a very unusual way of presenting himself.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    17
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 year ago

    Newsom is positioning himself to run for President in 5 years. While I appreciate his enthusiasm and all, and love his attacks on DeSatan, I think he should be spending this time fixing CA’s many, many problems.

    California is already a lightning rod for conservative hate, and honestly, much of it is legitimate. He needs to go back home and start fixing those problems and give Republicans less fodder in 2028. If he can fix those issues, he’s almost a sure-thing.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Ron DeSantis is “fundamentally authoritarian”, but Donald Trump’s quest for “vengeance” poses an even greater threat to democracy, California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom said on Sunday.

    Newsom took aim at the leading two candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination during a hard-hitting and wide-ranging interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, the final episode with its long-time host Chuck Todd.

    The governor, seen as a rising star in the Democratic party and a likely future presidential candidate, was referring to the former president’s often-voiced promises to gain “revenge” – if he wins back the White House – over political rivals he blames for the multiple criminal indictments against him.

    He disagreed with DeSantis’s strategy of lifting lockdowns and banning mask mandates, and attacked the Florida leader’s “partisanship” – most recently on display when he snubbed Joe Biden’s visit to the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Idalia.

    The California governor said he was fine with the rightwing Fox personality Sean Hannity as moderator, making it effectively a “two-on-one” debate in Newsom’s words.

    Newsom was also questioned on the future of the veteran California senator Dianne Feinstein, 90, whose recent health issues have led to long absences from the chamber and prompted calls for her to stand down.


    The original article contains 782 words, the summary contains 207 words. Saved 74%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    Ron DeSantis is fundamentally a fake piece of shit who is playing the authoritarian because that’s what the republican degenerates value.

  • rhacer@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    arrow-down
    24
    ·
    1 year ago

    Wait, the man who had surfers arrested during COVID called someone else fundamentally authoritarian?

    What a joke.

      • rhacer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I was laughing with a friend about the downvotes earlier today.

        Also, I fully agree regarding DeSantis. It just really feels like a pot calling the kettle black to hear Newsom referring to someone else as authoritarian.