During a portion of an interview aired on Monday’s “PBS NewsHour,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said that the DSA’s ideas are being worked into the platform of Democrats and said that part of the DSA platform is “about recognizing that we’ve got a planet that is getting hotter and drier, and that we’ve got to address the issue of climate change, and we want energy security, and we want to move off fossil fuels. That’s a DSA position. That’s a mainstream position within the Democratic Party.”
Co-host Amna Nawaz asked, “So, let me ask you about how Democrats can win back control of Congress, because it’s been a pretty revealing primary season for the party, right? A reckoning, some have called it, too. You saw how many wins DSA candidates, Democratic Socialist candidates, were able to win, Donavan McKinney in Michigan, Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, he doesn’t identify as DSA, but was sort of aligned with them. If you have these candidates and this platform that is clearly animating the base, energizing turnout, should more of those ideas be worked into the broader Democratic platform?”
Newsom answered, “I think they are. We want money out of politics. I’ve been supporting clean money campaigns for decades. We have a public finance –.”
Nawaz then cut in to say, “But there seems to be a little distance between some leadership and those DSA candidates.”
Newsom responded, “But not the ideas. We want — I believe in universal healthcare, and I believe in Medicare for All. The party does overwhelmingly, you poll people in the party. So, if it’s about more money in your pocket, lowering costs, it’s about getting money out of politics, and it’s about Medicare for All, I think we’re pretty aligned. It’s about recognizing that we’ve got a planet that is getting hotter and drier, and that we’ve got to address the issue of climate change, and we want energy security, and we want to move off fossil fuels. That’s a DSA position. That’s a mainstream position within the Democratic Party. So, I think, in many ways — it’s just a label. And it’s a familiar — forgive me, you’re talking to the wrong person, it’s such a familiar label to me. We called them progressives. It was the Green Party. I ran against the Green Party. It sounded — the exact same platform 20 years ago, maybe it’s because I’m from the Bay Area, maybe it’s because I’m from California. And I think it’s healthy. I just think it’s — I’m not consumed by this. I don’t think there’s a great — I just — I think it’s the natural — it’s the — how — it’s reflected in Kucinich and just aspects and component parts of our party that we’ve always had, and it’s a healthy dialectic within the party.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
