California Gov. Gavin Newsom reiterated his support Wednesday for President Biden to remain the Democratic nominee for president, even as other top Democrats and their supporters cast doubt on Biden’s future and called for him to step aside.
“I’m focused on supporting this campaign,” Newsom said of Biden’s re-election effort. “This candidate is a man of character, decency and honor. Contrast that with the darkness that is Donald Trump.”
Asked by a reporter if he still stood by a promise he made last September not to run against Vice President Kamala Harris for president, Newsom said “Of course. Yes.”
Newsom’s remarks came during a news conference at the Cal Fire Aviation Management Unit in Sacramento to discuss the state’s worsening fire season.
Newsom, along with Harris and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, has been mentioned often as a possible replacement for Biden as the Democratic nominee after Biden’s faltering debate performance June 27. But Newsom has said repeatedly that he supports Biden, and has campaigned actively for him this past week in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
“There were record crowds, unprecedented crowds of support for the president of the United states,” Newsom said. “I had 100 media outlets asking the same question, and I think I amply answered my support for the president. The support I saw on the ground was demonstrable.”
Newsom, 56, has been suggested as a younger alternative to Biden, 81. Some analysts have said any attempt at the Democratic convention to bypass Harris, the nation’s first black vice president and first female vice president, however, could cause a severe split in the Democratic Party. And Biden has been adamant that he has no plans to step aside.
On Wednesday, just as it looked as if he may have staved off calls for a new nominee, Biden encountered new headwinds.
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said merely “it’s up to the president to decide” if he should stay in the race. Celebrity donor George Clooney wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times saying that Biden should not run. And Democratic senators and lawmakers expressed fresh fears about his ability to beat Republican Donald Trump.
On Capitol Hill, an eighth House Democrat, Rep. Pat Ryan of New York, publicly asked Biden to step aside.
“I want him to do whatever he decides to do,” Pelosi said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” rather than declaring that Biden should stay in. While Biden has said repeatedly that he’s made his decision, she said, “We’re all encouraging him to make that decision, because time is running short.”
With the Republican National Convention set to begin Monday, it’s a crucial moment for the president and his party, as Democrats consider what was once unthinkable — having the incumbent Biden step aside, just weeks before the Democratic National Convention in Chicago that is on track to nominate him as their candidate for reelection in mid-August.
Biden is hosting world leaders in Washington for the NATO summit this week. His party at a crossroads, Biden faces the next test Thursday at a news conference that many Democrats in Congress will be watching for signs of his abilities.
Newsom Wednesday cited Biden’s speech at the NATO summit as an example of his gravitas.
“The president stood firm in supporting NATO last night,” Newsom said, “in contrast to President Trump who said he didn’t even know what NATO was. That’s how unserious Donald Trump is. He said ‘I didn’t even know what it was when I ren for president.’ Contrast that with the steadfast support of President Biden, and his remarks last night on the 75th anniversary and the master class of managing our alliances. NATO has never been stronger and it has never been bigger.”
Newsom also said that the outcome of the presidential race is particularly key for California, on issues from the environment to women’s rights.
“This an all-in moment for all of us,” he said. “This is serious for this state. No state has more to lose.”
“Everything about this campaign will impact this state disproportionately,” Newsom said. “We were involved with 122 lawsuits with the Trump administration. Don’t you guys remember that? The chaos. The fear the anxiety.”
Newsom singled out abortion rights.
“You saw an OB GYN in Louisiana who said ‘I’ll never unsee what I saw,’” Newsom said. “She said ‘I saw a young girl, 13 years old who was raped and forced to bring the baby to term, clutching a teddy bear. That’s the world we are living in under Donald Trump. That’s the world he is promoting. This is a consequential moment for all Californians and all Americans. Forgive me, but this is a very intense thing for me. When I say I’m all in, I’m all in.”
Newsom appeared to be referring to Dr. Neelima Sukhavasi, a Baton Rouge physician who testified in May to the Louisiana state legislature that she and other doctors had delivered babies to teens as young as 13 in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v Wade, some with complications such as preeclampsia, placental abruption and other potential causes of serious health risk and death.
Abortion rights activists had asked the Louisiana House to approve a bill to add a rape and incest exception for children under 17 to the state’s near-total abortion ban. Republicans who control the chamber voted no.
“One of these teenagers delivered a baby while clutching a teddy bear,” Sukhavasi said in May. “And that’s an image, I feel like once you see that you can’t unsee.”
Along with Newsom, Biden maintains strong support from key corners of his coalition, particularly the Congressional Black Caucus on Capitol Hill.
“At this moment, the stakes are too high and we have to focus,” Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota told The Associated Press on Tuesday, saying Democrats are “losing ground” the longer they fight over Biden’s candidacy. “Democracy is on the line. Everything we value as Democrats, as a country, is on the line, and we have to stop being distracted.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.