Gavin Newsom led Democrats in a blistering rebuke of Donald Trump on Tuesday, nearly one week after the slaying of Charlie Kirk prompted calls for a cooldown of political rhetoric.
Republicans for days had been blaming Democrats’ dire — and in their view, sensationalist — characterizations of the MAGA movement as laying the groundwork for the conservative activist’s killing. But Newsom, in his first extended political appearance since Kirk’s death, showed no signs of easing up on casting Trump and his GOP allies as a foundational menace, after the administration’s threats to punish the left. And he framed his gerrymander battle with the right as existential, warning that “we’ll lose this republic, we’ll lose this democracy.”
“It is not an overstatement. This is Code Red,” Newsom said during an online livestream with a host of party leaders and influencers to benefit his redistricting ballot measure. “We all need to wake up to what’s going on.”
The ability to gather the luminaries of Very Online Democrats is an apt flex for Newsom, who has been fixated on cozying up to the left-leaning creator class to counter the much-larger GOP media landscape. The line-up included hosts of popular podcasts such as “Pod Save America” and “MediasTouch,” YouTubers such as Brian Taylor Cohen and elected officials like House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
It was a modern version of a Telethon — where guests urged viewers to donate to the Yes on 50 campaign — and Newsom was the proto-Jerry Lewis, making a number of appearances throughout the evening and earning fawning praise from the guests.
Newsom has surged to national prominence in recent months, casting himself as Democrats’ trollish, pugnacious id — alternately needling Trump as weak and framing him as an existential threat to democracy. But in the wake of Kirk’s death, Newsom — more than most in his party — has tried to thread an exceedingly tricky needle.
Newsom rankled members of his party earlier this year when he hosted Kirk on his inaugural interview podcast. The two had sporadically kept in touch via text since then, and when Kirk was fatally shot, Newsom released a lengthy statement expressing admiration for the Turning Point USA co-founder’s “passion and commitment to debate.”
He continued the somber tone at an event earlier Tuesday about engaging young men, recounting how his son was among the many young people affected by Kirk’s death. Newsom later solemnly acknowledged the tragedy on the live stream, saying that while they had “deep differences of opinion,” he cherished their opportunity to engage.
But Newsom has also been galled by the Trump administration’s reaction to the shooting, including top aide Stephen Miller vowing a crackdown on left-leaning groups in revenge. (Tyler Robinson, the suspect in Kirk’s death, appeared to hold liberal views and denounced Kirk’s “hatred,” according to charging documents filed by prosecutors on Tuesday, but so far there has been no indication that he was aided by any outside organizations.)
Newsom raised the specter of Miller and other Trump officials when asked Tuesday to address concerns that Democrats were abandoning their good-governance principles by embracing a partisan gerrymander.
“We can sit there and say, ‘Boy, people really should have stood up and taken this guy Stephen Miller a little bit more seriously when he called the Democratic Party a terrorist organization’ … Or we can recognize the moment we’re in, and we can meet that moment, and we can push back,” Newsom said.
The threat of sweeping vengeance by the Trump administration convinced Newsom that he could not stop raising the alarm, said one Newsom strategist, who was granted anonymity to discuss private conservations.
“The question is how you’re fighting, not whether you’re fighting,” the strategist said.
The three-hour campaign event shed its initial, vaguely menacing name — FAFO (F*ck Around and Find Out) 50 — after Kirk’s death and rebranded to align with National Voter Registration Day. But aside from the name change, there was little difference from the original format. The program not only revealed how Newsom would approach Trump in the aftermath of Kirk’s death, but also how much the likely presidential contender has become a messaging standard-bearer for Democrats out of power in Washington after Republicans’ victories in 2024.
For weeks, Newsom and California Democrats have cast their redistricting measure, Proposition 50, as a counterstrike to Trump’s attempt to “rig” the midterms. On Tuesday, the constellation of online liberal influencers, podcasters and party stalwarts were singing from the same Newsom-influenced hymnal — and bashing the governor’s frequent targets.
“I promise you, one one of the first people to receive a subpoena will be Stephen Miller,” said Florida Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost, touting what Democrats would do if they won the majority in the House. “That guy is one of the most evil people, not just in government but in this country.”
Republicans alternatively denounced the event as a tasteless foray into violent rhetoric or a pathetic liberal echo chamber.
“‘Leader’ Hakeem Jeffries is surrounding himself with Gavin Newsom and the most radical Democrats who spew violent, anti-American rhetoric,” said Christian Martinez, a spokesperson for the National Republican Congressional Committee. “By embracing this extremism, Jeffries and Newsom are dooming out of touch House Democrats from any chance of winning the majority and dragging their party even further down the gutter.”
Jessica Millan Patterson, the former California Republican Party chair who is running a committee opposing Prop 50, took a more dismissive tone, blasting Newsom for “hosting a cringeworthy webinar packed with DC politicians, out-of-state influencers, and irrelevant podcasters, all lining up to applaud his gerrymandered maps.”
