California Gov. Gavin Newsom likened the economic messages pushed by Steve Bannon, a driving force behind the MAGA movement, to those championed by democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
The unlikely comparison came after the Democratic governor faced backlash for last week having the far-right Bannon, a White House adviser during Donald Trump’s first term as president, as a guest on his podcast.
Newsom, who was called out for his “stupidity” in providing a platform for Bannon, also was criticized for not pushing backing as Bannon peddled the lie that Trump beat Joe Biden in 2020.
During an interview with Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on the latest episode of the podcast, Newsom refused to dismiss the motivations of MAGA world as simply “racism and misogyny.”
At one point in their conversation, the former Democratic vice presidential candidate asked how the party should “fight” the male-dominated, Trump-aligned movement, and said he’d love to “push” some key figures “back under a rock.”
Newsom, who many think has ambitions for a presidential run in 2028, responded by arguing that it’s important “to first understand what their motivations are” and figure out “what they’re actually doing.”
After Walz asked whether the motivation was “racism and misogyny,” Newsom suggested what is fueling them is more complicated.
He said, “When you talk to a guy like Steve Bannon, he reminded me a little bit of my grandfather when he talks about working folks, and he talks about how we hollowed out the industrial core of this country.”
“But he denies the election,” Walz intervened.
Newsom continued, “I understand that. So we can dismiss the notion of election denialism. We could completely dismiss what he did on Jan. 6, but I don’t think you can dismiss what he’s saying. It reminds me a lot of what Bernie Sanders was saying. It reminded me a lot of what Democrats said 20, 30 years ago.”
He argued Bannon “hates” Elon Musk and “the oligarchy,” and champions tax cuts for the middle class over the wealthy.
Sanders, the 83-year-old fourth-term senator, has emerged as a flag-bearer of the resistance to Trump’s second presidency, attracting thousands of people to rallies across the country as part of his “Stopping Oligarchy” tour.
During his discussion with Newsom released last week, Bannon said he was “not a fan” of Sanders but praised other “economic populists,” including Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and former Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio).
Last month, Bannon was accused of giving a Nazi salute at a conservative gathering. Bannon defended the gesture as merely a “wave.”
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Watch Newsom and Walz’s conversation about Bannon below from around 32:05.
