Biden’s Body Double
Gavin Newsom is the man Robert F. Kennedy Jr. would be if Kennedy didn’t have a deeper soul.
Newsom is a progressive when it comes to environmental protection, abortion defense, LGBTQ rights, gun control and other social issues. He’s good looking and dynamic. And he’s the “next rising Irish star in U.S. politics,” in the words of an Irish commentator, a high-profile Democrat poised to take Joe Biden’s place as the 2024 presidential candidate (despite his strong disavowals) if the octogenarian with glaring polling weaknesses steps down.
But Gavin Newsom is not his own man. He’s the creation of others, who are much more wealthy, much more powerful than him. Yes, he’s a rising star — but in someone else’s galaxy.
It’s true, he has his attractions. I’ve watched him closely ever since he was supervisor, then mayor of my hometown, San Francisco. If Newsom does become the Democrats’ back-room choice next year, he would make a formidable opponent of RFK Jr. Unlike the sophomoric debate-stage antics of Donald Trump, which have worn thin, Newsom and Kennedy would clash in illuminating ways, outlining the clear differences between the mainstream Democratic positions and those of an independent thinker like RFK Jr. As he showed last week in the Fox News-sponsored debate with pugnacious Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Newsom is not afraid to go into the lion’s den and exchange ideas (and barbs) with an adversary. He’s a skilled and smart debater.
When it comes to RFK Jr., Newsom also takes a smoothly strategic tone, expressing sadness about Kennedy’s political evolution, rather than censorious scorn like many of his fellow Democrats. In a September interview with Meet the Press host Chuck Todd, the California governor extolled RFK Jr. as “one of my great inspirations on the environment. “ But he also expressed regrets that they had diverged sharply on issues like the parole of Sirhan Sirhan (whom Kennedy boldly met with behind bars and knows didn’t fire the fatal shot that killed his father) and the statewide Covid lockdown (which Newsom himself infamously violated, dining with politically-connected friends at the exclusive French Laundry in the wine country). While describing his past relationship with RFK Jr. as “reverential,” Newsom also criticized him “for veering off on the spectrum.”
This attitude of pained disappointment with Kennedy is shrewd and, yes, slick, as Newsom himself is.
Like Joe Biden, Newsom aspires to the mantle of JFK and RFK. His late father, Judge William “Bill” Newsom, worked on Bobby Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign before it ended tragically at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. In 2017, when I was a San Francisco Chronicle columnist, I interviewed Gavin, who was then serving in the sleepy post of California’s lieutenant governor, while nursing his blue-sky ambitions. After the interview ran, Gavin thanked me in a text for “the balance in today’s article — the good, tough questions.” I replied that I was “rooting for you to be the JFK/RFK I know is inside you.” To which he texted, “I appreciate that, seriously!”
It's true — there is something Kennedyesque about Gavin Newsom. But I fear it’s mostly cosmetic. Unlike President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was seen as a traitor to his class, Newsom has never betrayed his super-wealthy benefactors.
Like his grandfather and father, Gavin has always been very close to the Gettys, the dynastic family that has long benefited San Francisco political luminaries like former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris. (It was Bill Newsom who carried the ransom for John Paul Getty III.) Young Gavin went into the wine and hospitality business with Billy Getty, a grandson of oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, who amassed the family fortune.
Gavin himself, a child of divorce, was not rich when he grew up. But he knew the path to success, he knew with whom to partner, and who to keep close. Two years ago, when the governor was scheduled to address a global climate crisis conference in Scotland, he opted instead to attend the glittering wedding of 27-year-old billionaire oil heiress Ivy Getty, a ceremony that took over San Francisco’s opulent city hall and was officiated by Speaker Pelosi.
Today, Gavin Newsom’s wealth is estimated between $18 and $22 million, mostly from his co-ownership of PlumpJack Associates, which runs a winery, restaurants, hotels and retail clothing stores. As DeSantis pointed out during their debate, Newsom is one of the hypocritical “liberal elite,” preaching the benefits of public education while sending his own four children to private school.
Besides the difference in their ages (81 and 56) and energy levels, there would be little dissimilarity between President Biden and a President Newsom. On the debate stage last week, Newsom loyally confirmed that he was a Biden man when it came to important issues like the economy and immigration. Unlike Biden administration officials, Newsom does not demonize China, a big trading partner of California. But like other current Democratic leaders, he celebrates U.S. imperial power and would continue our costly and bloody “forever wars” policy. President Newsom would also keep supporting the triumph of the oligarchy over democracy, as the governor’s alliance with Silicon Valley and Hollywood shows, as well as his close relationship with the real estate industry when he was mayor of San Francisco.
Yes, a President Newsom would be Biden 2.0. Newer, more memory, more capacity — perhaps some AI. But the same machine.
Governors Gavin Newsom and Ron DeSantis