Like Joe Biden without the dementia (or lying about being smart)
Gavin Newsom, the California governor who is definitely running for president in 2028, has been denounced as racist after suggesting his lack of intelligence made it easier to relate to black people. “I’m like you,” Newsom told Atlanta’s black mayor, Andre Dickens, while adopting a bizarre MLK-style accent. “I’m… no… better… than… you. I’m a 960 SAT guy. Ha. And I’m not trying to offend anyone—you know, trying to act all there if you got 940. Haha.”
Anti-hate advocates pounced and seized on Newsom’s remarks, made over the weekend at a book tour stop in Georgia. Nina Turner, a former Democratic lawmaker from Ohio, slammed Newsom for “insulting” black people. Hip-hop artist Nicki Minaj went off, noting that the governor’s slowed speech and “sporadic cadence” suggested he really did view black people as “children” who wouldn’t understand him otherwise.
Sen. Tim Scott (R., S.C.), the first black politician to represent a Southern state in the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction, blasted Newsom’s “ridiculous” pandering attempt. “Black Americans aren’t your low bar,” he wrote. “Stop using your mediocre academics as a way to patronize communities.”
Some suggested that Newsom’s hateful comments raised questions about his ability to win a national election, while others pointed out that Newsom was simply upholding the Democratic Party’s proud tradition of racist condescension. The tactic has been utilized by every Democratic presidential nominee since 2016, which could suggest that Newsom is trying to model their successful primary campaigns in order to gain an edge in 2028.
Hillary Clinton had a long history of awkward pandering before seizing the nomination in 2016. She was widely ridiculed for using an egregious black accent during the 2008 Democratic primary. Clinton revived the cringeworthy accent during her second failed campaign, and even adopted new methods of pandering. She told the black cohosts of the Breakfast Club podcast that she always carried hot sauce in her purse. An uncomfortable pause ensued when Charlamagne tha God pointed out that this could be viewed as blatant pandering to black voters. “OK!” Hillary cackled. “Is it working?”
Joe Biden, the most successful Democratic nominee in recent years, was a prolific racial panderer whose condescending style Newsom appears to be emulating. Biden made headlines back in 2007 for describing his future running mate, Barack Obama, as the “first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.” While running for reelection in 2012, Biden told a largely black audience that Mitt Romney was going to “put y’all back in chains.” During the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden conflated blackness with poverty while explaining that “poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids.”
Like Hillary before him, Biden also made a stunningly condescending remark on the Breakfast Club podcast. “If you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black,” Biden told Charlamagne tha God in May 2020. After the interview, Charlamagne said that he wasn’t sure he would vote for Biden because the candidate’s assertion about black people was “kinda crazy.”
Oblivious racism isn’t the only thing Newsom shares with Biden. Neither man appears to care very much about the well-being of their families. Biden ran for president in 2020 despite the fact that two of his adult children were struggling with addiction. He refused to acknowledge the existence of the daughter Hunter Biden fathered with Lunden Roberts in 2018, and had to be shamed into doing so nearly five years after the fact.
Newsom, who is definitely running for president, recently alleged on CNN that he would only run if his family supported the decision. In the same interview, he revealed that one of his sons had already told him not to run. “He goes, ‘You can’t.’ And I said ‘why?’ He goes, ‘I’m too young. You need to spend more time with us,'” Newsom said. “I mean, how do you deal with that one?” Newsom will deal with this by running for president no matter what.
The California governor has also adopted Biden’s habit of claiming to be from the hood. Both men have suggested that they achieved success despite their troubled childhoods as poor black kids growing up in violent neighborhoods. Newsom’s father, William Alfred Newsom III, was a state judge and financial adviser to billionaire oil magnate Gordon Getty. Nevertheless, he recently recalled a childhood of surviving on Wonder Bread while constantly “hustling” and worrying about “paying the bills, man.”
There is, however, at least one important distinction when it comes to Biden and Newsom’s approach to pandering. Whereas Newsom openly admits to being a poor student, Biden blatantly lied about his academic record on several occasions—most notably during the 1988 Democratic primary when Biden falsely claimed that he earned multiple degrees, received a full academic scholarship, and graduated near the top of his law school class. (He was 76th out of 85 students.) Biden ultimately dropped out of the race to avoid further humiliation.
Newsom may have learned an important lesson by studying Biden’s career—that Democratic voters are far more accepting of racial pandering than they are of blatant lies about one’s intelligence.
Not having dementia is also a plus.
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