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Newsom visits The New York Times and talks Trump and the future

Newsom visits The New York Times and talks Trump and the future
Newsom visits The New York Times and talks Trump and the future

(California Today)

He dined with his archnemesis. He hobnobbed with his contemporaries. And then Gov. Gavin Newsom made a four-hour road trip from Washington to New York, where he swung by The New York Times.

Newsom’s visit to New York came after a weekend at the annual conference of governors, where he made headlines for what seemed to be a new willingness to work with the Trump administration. On Sunday, he met with the acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and attended a black-tie dinner at the White House hosted by the president.

“It is important for us to establish relationships not only with governors but with other legislative leaders in D.C.,” Newsom said. “And to the extent that we can with key Cabinet agency directors and leaders in the administration and dare I say the president himself.”

Still, he said, California is not backing down. He mentioned the 46 lawsuits that California is fighting with the Trump administration and said a 47th might be filed as early as this week. The governor also talked about the many ways that California sets the agenda for the rest of the country. Here are some more highlights:

California as the Future

“In every way we are America’s coming attraction,” Newsom said. “And I say every way because literally America in 2019 was California in the 1980s and 1990s. Everything we’re experiencing — the xenophobia, the nativism, the fear of the other, think back to Pete Wilson and Prop 187 — that would make Donald Trump blush.”

But, he noted, the ascendancy of the Republican Party came to a halt roughly two decades ago in the state and, “Now here we are: 27 percent foreign born, we brought in 112,000 refugees in the last 15 years, we’re a majority minority state, thriving economically, but still struggling with these disparities.” He added: “Someone recently said to me, ‘You are just America, but more so. More poverty, more problems, more opportunity, more ambition.'”

What’s Next:

Pharmaceutical drug costs and the death penalty are two major areas of focus for the governor in the near term, he said. And his administration is preparing for a recession — “more acute than ’01 but less acute than ’07.”

And Look for a West Coast Collaboration

Newsom seemed most engaged when talking about his fellow governors, including his colleague in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, whom he referred to on a first-name basis.

When asked who else he is turning to for advice, he said:

“I am a best practice junkie. I am casing other people’s joints 24/7. I am inspired by good ideas wherever I find them. I have been particularly impressed with Jared Polis [Colorado]. Gina Raimondo in Rhode Island has been amazing. She is pragmatic, tough and interesting and a very capable governor. Jay Inslee [Washington] and I have been working on climate issues since I was lieutenant governor. We’re looking to do something pretty interesting: a West Coast collaborative that goes further than just climate issues. So not just decarbonization efforts, but working together on social justice and on a growth and inclusion agenda. So we have a draft of how Gov. Kate Brown in Oregon, Governor Inslee and myself can join in a broader collaboration. I’m working with other governors on the prescription drug strategy.

“There’s a lot of new energy. The DGA [Democratic Governors Association] has been re-energized and there’s a state of mind for these governors and a recognition that you have to be nimble, adaptive and entrepreneurial in your mindset with Trump.”

He pointed to one example where this joint effort is paying off:

“I can tell you it was very easy to pick up the phone and get 15 other governors to sign on to that declaration of emergency lawsuit. And trust me there are a bunch of others who are just waiting to join. Trump has forced us to collaborate in some respects and that’s an encouraging and enlivening thing and frankly it’s long overdue. We should have been doing this for years and years.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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