The View thrashes Newsom’s MAGA podcast interviews

The hosts of The View joined other liberals and Democrats in denouncing Gavin Newsom for launching a new podcast that features friendly sitdowns with MAGA extremists, calling it “despicable” and a “poor strategy” that shows how “inauthentic” the California governor is. After kicking off the weekly podcast earlier this month with a cordial chat with Charlie Kirk, which featured the 2028 presidential hopeful agreeing with the TPUSA founder on trans athletes while revealing his teenage son is a huge fan of Kirk’s, Newsom has brought on hard-right radio host Michael Savage and former Trump strategist Steve Bannon.

The hour-long conversation with Bannon, a key figure in Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election who served prison time for contempt of Congress, saw the Democratic governor finding common ground with the MAGA architect on several issues. “I was shocked and pleased that the governor was on the same page,” Bannon told Newsweek after the interview. The governor’s chummy interview with the War Room host did not sit well with the women of The View on Thursday, who felt that Newsom was unwilling to push back against Bannon’s more extreme views and inflammatory comments, such as when Bannon gleefully used Trump’s derisive nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA). Sara Haines, for instance, said that while she entirely agrees with the notion of reaching across the aisle to have conversations “even with the difficult people,” she believes that Newsom “didn’t hit the right tone” with his Bannon interview. “There was no pushback on some things,” she noted. “He said we disagree on who won the election. Factually, that was a moment where you say there’s been zero proof or let him hang himself and push back and say, ‘When you say that, what do you mean?’ And make him explain to the listeners how he gets there and then they’ve heard enough. And when you’ve talked about Sen. Warren and calling her Pocahontas, he kind of chuckled and went back. There’s got to be a base level of entry for these conversations.”

Elizabeth Warren

Co-host Sunny Hostin, however, took it even further and fully lambasted the governor for not only the way he conducted the one-on-one with Bannon, but for having the former Breitbart chief on at all. “I just think this is a poor strategy for Gavin Newsom,” she said, adding that she had previously believed he’d be a top contender for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. “I remember watching his annual State of the Union address in California, and he criticised Republicans and he promoted California as an antidote to the poisonous populism of the right,” Hostin noted. “Now he has a Steve Bannon on the show who’s saying you’re going to get to populism. There’s a long road. He gives zero pushback there.”

Complaining that Newsom gave Bannon a “platform” to normalize “an election denier,” she then blasted the governor for coming across as fake. “I believe that if you are going to be a public servant, you better be unapologetically authentic because voters can sniff out inauthenticity in a second,” Hostin fumed. “And I thought that that was one of the most inauthentic things I have seen Gavin Newsom do.” Her colleague Joy Behar, meanwhile, wondered if that meant she didn’t “believe in the let them hang themselves theory,” prompting Hostin to get a few more shots in at Newsom. “No. I’m terribly disappointed,” she replied. “I think you meet energy with energy. He showed his pretty white teeth and cute face and did nothing other than that. And I think it’s despicable.” It isn’t just the liberal punditry that is angry with Newsom for handing over a megaphone to pro-Trump provocateurs. A senior House Democrat told Status News’ Oliver Darcy that there is growing frustration among Democrats on Capitol Hill with the governor, especially after the Bannon sitdown.