The California governor described White House reporters as ‘sycophants’

California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the media for what he described as overly deferential coverage of Donald Trump, characterizing reporters in Oval Office press briefings as “sycophants.”

The Democratic governor — widely seen as a potential contender for the 2028 presidential race — made the remarks during a Sunday interview with progressive commentator Jack Cocchiarella.

Cocchiarella pressed Newsom on what he framed as “hesitancy” within the White House press corps to scrutinize certain subjects: namely, the 80-year-old president’s health.

“You see these press conferences in the Oval Office,” the governor replied. “You maybe have one or two reasonable reporters. They ask a question; there's no chance for a follow-up. And then it’s seven sycophants from news outlets.”

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[+] -24 points 4 months ago (79 children)

That is NOT true. Voting for a Democrat that does nothing is just as bad. Not only would they do nothing to reverse the damage, they have actively taken votes that would have been better used on a politician that actually cares.

A lot of people will blindly vote for the person with a D next to their name. The Democratic party is purposely not putting the best candidates forward. There needs to be more awareness of who the duds are and either vote them out or not vote them in.

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  • [–] 23 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    And that's how people like Trump become president. Pure and simple.

    Sometimes the lesser of two evils is quite a lot less fucking evil.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    That's what primaries are for.

    Like it or not, we live in a two-party system. The electoral college and the congressional rules make it so. We can either make it work, or we can give up.

    I'm going to vote for the leftist, most progressive person i can in the primaries. But when that fails, I'm going to vote for the democrat on the ticket because even the worst democrat is better than the best republican at this point.

    We can't afford another 4 years of Trump-Light in JD Vance.. Millions of people have already died as a result of Trump getting back in this time... and more people will die, and it will be marginalized people. People of Color, Trans people, immigrants. As in real death.

    Not Voting has real consequences.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    The Democratic socialists of America would like to have a word with you

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    This piece of giant shit fucked up California so much. He's to blame for all the fires, he stopped funding fire departments to do controlled burns and left it to the "consumers".

    Also, so many whistleblowers came out from his fundraising foundation that he and his wife were embezzling funds during the Biden administration, Biden's doj launched an investigation still going on today.

    He also used prison populations to fight fires as slave labor with no chance of becoming a fire fighter upon release because of their criminal records.

    He regularly makes sure to cover for his habitually drunk driving asshole of an uncle, including VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER. And plays the stock market just like his corrupt cunt aunt.

    He gave billionaires WATER RIGHTS to waste on growing fucking almonds that DIRECTLY CAUSED droughts in the central valley.

    This fucking swamp taint needs to have his personal winery dumped with the round up he approved to dump on forests, killing any life and draining into municipal water infrastructure. He's directly causing more cancer and health issues for regular people

    Newsom is JUST AS MUCH OF A FASCIST AS TRUMP.

    HE SUCKS BILLIONAIRE COCK EVERYDAY, THAT'S WHY CALIFORNIA HAS THE MOST BILLIONAIRES IN THE FUCKING COUNTRY NOW.

    HE FUCKING DESTROYED MY HOME STATE

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    Newsom is just as much of a fascist as the orange pedophile

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    This piece of giant shit fucked up California so much. He's to blame for all the fires, he stopped funding fire departments to do controlled burns and left it to the "consumers".

    Also, so many whistleblowers came out from his fundraising foundation that he and his wife were embezzling funds during the Biden administration, Biden's doj launched an investigation still going on today.

    He also used prison populations to fight fires as slave labor with no chance of becoming a fire fighter upon release because of their criminal records.

    He regularly makes sure to cover for his habitually drunk driving asshole of an uncle, including VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER. And plays the stock market just like his corrupt cunt aunt.

    He gave billionaires WATER RIGHTS to waste on growing fucking almonds that DIRECTLY CAUSED droughts in the central valley.

    This fucking swamp taint needs to have his personal winery dumped with the round up he approved to dump on forests, killing any life and draining into municipal water infrastructure. He's directly causing more cancer and health issues for regular people

    Newsom is JUST AS MUCH OF A FASCIST AS TRUMP.

    HE SUCKS BILLIONAIRE COCK EVERYDAY, THAT'S WHY CALIFORNIA HAS THE MOST BILLIONAIRES IN THE FUCKING COUNTRY NOW.

    HE FUCKING DESTROYED MY HOME STATE

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  • [–] 32 points 4 months ago (14 children)

    Primaries are where you decide. After that, you choose the least worst. And sorry, a "Democrat that does nothing" is not just as bad as open fascism.

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  • [–] 13 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    No 3rd party candidate will win a General Election unless something changes in the way the Is voting system works. Voting for a 3rd party is literally throwing your vote away at best, or helping the Republicans at worst.

    It’s either naivety or intentional disinformation to spout otherwise.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    And they have next to no chance of winning.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    For one thing, there is no serious third party. For another: history.

    If we had ranked choice voting, it might be different. If Democratic Socialists want to run in and win primaries and run as Democrats, hey, great.

    I am not throwing away my vote in the general for some unserious party like the Green Party (which is probably just a cutout anyway) who runs a candidate at the national level every 4 years and does next to nothing at the local level.

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Cool. Let's peel off just enough Democratic votes to throw away put into some column C that is going into a record, while we install the next Trump, dutifully carrying out the next iteration of Project 2025.

    I'm sure that'll show 'em. We will all take solace in the fact that we can....point to the third party votes that are on the record while the conservatives have several more years of free reign to utterly destroy the country.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (18 children)

    So just like last time, not gonna vote if they aren't perfect?

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Yeah they will throw us under the buss again.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    Gee, I wonder why the fascists are in office.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago

    Because the DNC is completely incapable of fielding a candidate that can clear even the miniscule bar set by the Republicans.

    Chuck Schumer never endorsed Mamdani, not even after he was the official Democratic nominee, running against Andrew Cuomo. Shit like that is why the fascists are in office.

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  • [–] -1 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    because the moderates are too determined to screw over the progressives.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago (6 children)

    Voting for a Democrat that does nothing is just as bad.

    Good luck convincing anyone who has eyes and a brain

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  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    Dude lemmy eats this shit up like a fat kid getting after a cupcake.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    It's one of my biggest issues with lemmy, it's like the democrat that gets us some actually great policies, who does have some big problems, is treated the same as the Republicans passing racist transphobic climate damaging research canceling (also canceled funding for cancer research for children...) legislation.

    Democrats seem to be useless because they have to spend 4 years undoing the trainwreck caused by Republicans, but the American people have the memory of a goldfish apparently so we keep getting more Republicans.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    it's like the democrat that gets us some actually great policies, who does have some big problems, is treated the same as the Republicans

    Exactly. Same, if not even worse sometimes. Because it's a given that Republicans are shit, so they focus their ire on liberals and progressives that haven't passed their arbitrary purity test.

    They also seem to have no concept of things like political capital.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago

    True actually I forgot they've normalized it so much to where a headline of "trump caught defrauding the government of billions and giving hundreds of millions to israel" is sort of a "yeah that's just what he does."

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    If Newsom is the Democrat candidate in 2028, I think that's an alright outcome. I think he would be a better president than Trump. Not just because he has a "D" next to his name, but instead because his viewpoints seem more rational and fair than those of Trump.

    Some people might think that Newsom isn't progressive enough, but whoever is the Democrat candidate, they need to have broad enough appeal to win a national election. If the candidate is someone who is very progressive then they might alienate a lot of centrist voters and fail to win a national election.

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    There is a very clear difference between a Centrist and somebody who does nothing. Steady progress is fine as long as progress is made.

    Inaction means you are fine with the current situation. The people who do not stand up to the bully are no better than the bully, and the people who think otherwise are deluding themselves so they can feel better about not helping.

    I'm getting particularly frustrated that commenters are taking a very clear statement and manipulating it to put words in my mouth in order to think they've made a point. I'm not blaming you specifically but you are the straw that broke the camel's back.

    I can't fucking believe wanting politicians to actually make the world a better place would be so fucking controversial.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (3 children)

    Newsom is just as much of a fascist as Trump

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (2 children)
  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (1 child)

    This piece of giant shit fucked up California so much. He's to blame for all the fires, he stopped funding fire departments to do controlled burns and left it to the "consumers".

    Also, so many whistleblowers came out from his fundraising foundation that he and his wife were embezzling funds during the Biden administration, Biden's doj launched an investigation still going on today.

    He also used prison populations to fight fires as slave labor with no chance of becoming a fire fighter upon release because of their criminal records.

    He regularly makes sure to cover for his habitually drunk driving asshole of an uncle, including VEHICULAR MANSLAUGHTER. And plays the stock market just like his corrupt cunt aunt.

    He gave billionaires WATER RIGHTS to waste on growing fucking almonds that DIRECTLY CAUSED droughts in the central valley.

    This fucking swamp taint needs to have his personal winery dumped with the round up he approved to dump on forests, killing any life and draining into municipal water infrastructure. He's directly causing more cancer and health issues for regular people

    Newsom is JUST AS MUCH OF A FASCIST AS TRUMP.

    HE SUCKS BILLIONAIRE COCK EVERYDAY, THAT'S WHY CALIFORNIA HAS THE MOST BILLIONAIRES IN THE FUCKING COUNTRY NOW.

    HE FUCKING DESTROYED MY HOME STATE

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (14 children)

    Under normal circumstances I'd be inclined to agree but these are not normal circumstances.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (13 children)
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (12 children)

    You think Trump term 2 is just as bad as Bush? Even trump term 1 was not this bad.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (11 children)

    Bush killed millions of middle easterners. Did you forget about all the dead brown kids because they weren't actively affecting your life at home?

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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago (9 children)

    Who in the fuck said that? Are you hearing voices or something?

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  • [+] 0 points 4 months ago (9 children)
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    Can't wait for this one to be removed, lol. I'll write a comment anyway.

    You implied trump term 2 is worse than Bush, I informed you that Bush killed millions of people in his 8 year term.

    The you put words in my mouth and fucking flipped out and resorted to ad hominem attacks.

    I'm under no obligation to answer your pancakes and waffles bullshit ass questions, lmao.

    Seems to me like trump has a few million more people to kill before he's even on the same level as your evil ex president. Maybe try and be a little more civil next time you talk to me.

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  • [–] 1 point 4 months ago (6 children)

    Bush is objectively worse when it comes to murdering innocents overseas (so far). I thought my comments made that abundantly clear?

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