Commentary: Yes, Newsom's new podcast is cringe. But is it also smart?

Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, “This is Gavin Newsom,” has Democrats in a tizzy. Voices Barabak: With friends like Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk, Newsom may talk himself to political death The governor’s latest endeavor is a show coddling right-wing provocateurs. In his interview with Bannon, he agreed Deep State-style that “there’s a clay layer of bureaucracy, and you’re right, unaccountable folks making a lot of decisions,” and offered no dissent when Bannon claimed, “this is part of the process to unwind you from being a globalist, to make you a populist nationalist.. It’s a long journey, but I think you’ll get there.” Newsom expressed disdain for meetings where people identify their pronouns, didn’t argue with Bannon when he forcefully claimed the 2020 election was stolen from Trump and spent a long time telling Kirk how much his teenage son was a fan. ‘I agree with what he is saying but he is a liar.’” After being shown three bits from the Kirk podcast, Mitchell found that 26% of voters said it “harmed their perception” of Newsom, while 37% of self-identified liberals said the clips “harmed their perception of the Governor.” But to a certain extent, what Democrats think of Newsom right now may not matter that much.