Gavin Newsom’s Harsh New Takedown of Trump Will Shock Dems: “Wake Up!”

THE DAILY BLAST with Greg Sargent

The New Republic

News, Politics

4.4 • 800 Ratings

🗓️ 25 August 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

California Governor Gavin Newsom is breaking through like no other Democrat. This is partly because he’s forging ahead with a state gerrymander to add five Democratic House seats, countering President Trump’s rigging of Texas. But we think there are deeper reasons Newsom is cutting through the noise. These were on display when Newsom recently issued a stark warning about Trump’s long term intentions. Newsom connected numerous dots to offer a takedown of Trump that laid bare the full scope of his ongoing authoritarian takeover in a way other Democrats rarely do. We talked to Will Stancil, a policy researcher and attorney who has developed an interesting analysis of the Democratic Party on social media. We discussed what makes Newsom’s approach different, how he’s attempting to solve the party’s struggles in the information wars, and why it offers the beginnings of an approach for the party to adopt amid Trump’s imposition of authoritarian rule. Looking for More from the DSR Network? Click Here: https://linktr.ee/deepstateradio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Daily Blast from the New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
0:16.5	I'm your host, Greg Sargent.
0:33.0	California Governor Gavin Newsom is breaking through the noise in a way that no other Democrat is right now.
0:44.2	Part of this is because he's forging ahead with a plan to gerrymander California to net five extra Democratic House seats in order to counter President Trump's effort to do the same in Texas.
0:51.0	But we think there are deeper reasons Newsom is breaking through right now and that Democrats can learn from them.
0:56.5	This was clearly on display when Newsom recently issued a stark warning about Trump's long-term intentions. In so doing, he connected the dots in a way that Democrats rarely do.
1:04.2	We're talking about all this with Will Stansel, a policy researcher and attorney in Minneapolis
1:08.6	who's been a relentless online critic of the Democratic Party's
1:11.8	failure to rise to this moment. He's developed an interesting set of arguments about what's
1:16.5	happening in our politics. Will, thanks for coming on, man. Glad to be here. So the California
1:22.4	legislature has passed a plan to pave the way for redrawing the lines on the state's house seats.
1:28.4	Newsom signed it.
1:29.7	Now it goes to the voters in a special election this November.
1:33.1	What's interesting to me is that there's nothing mealy-mouthed about any of this.
1:37.4	Newsom's saying, you're damn friggin' right we're going to gerrymander if the Republicans are.
1:42.5	Dems don't usually talk like this.
1:44.2	What's your overall take on where this all is?
1:46.9	I think he's doing the right thing.
1:48.8	He is being honest about the moment.
1:50.7	He's being honest about what's happening in Texas.
1:54.4	He's not beaning around the bush or pretending that he's advancing, you know,
1:58.7	some sort of lofty procedural goal.
	...

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