California Gov. Gavin Newsom has dismantled an argument by “motherf—-r” Joe Rogan.
Newsom was on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast on Monday, when the host told him that fellow podcaster Rogan had got in touch with a question. “Motherf—-r!” Newsom reacted.
He then revealed he is a fan of the conservative talking head, despite the favor not being reciprocated. “By the way, I’m a Joe Rogan fan. He ain’t a fan of mine, but I’m a Joe Rogan fan. No bulls–t,” he told Shawn Ryan.
“And I’ve lived it for decades… I feel like it’s a decade back in the day before Joe was Joe Rogan. He was just a podcaster, man. Now he’s a phenom.”
“Oh, God,” muttered the governor.
“This is a tough one,” the host conceded.
“He won’t have me on the show, by the way,” Newsom interjected as Ryan readied to read the communication.
Ryan then read the texted question from Rogan, a gotcha attempt on Newsom’s handling of the Covid pandemic in California. Rogan has been critical of Newsom’s response to the pandemic, calling him a “f‑‑‑ing conman” in 2023, and accusing him of pushing unnecessary vaccine mandates for children.
“Who will be held accountable for mandating COVID-19 vaccines for children, which were unnecessary and ineffective, and who will take responsibility for the unprecedented increases in myocarditis and cancer cases among them?” it said.
Ryan continued: “Second to that, do you feel any remorse for that draconian decision that was obviously heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical companies’ desire for maximum profit?”
Newsom then clapped back with a level-headed rebuke, defending his record. He first swatted away the suggestion that he had acted at the behest of “Big Pharma,” a negative nom de guerre given to large, multinational pharmaceutical companies.
“I’ve signed some of the most progressive laws against Big Pharma in the country. So I have receipts on that. So, no one should suggest that it was about doing the bidding of Big Pharma—quite the contrary,” Newsom reasoned.
He then defended his record during Covid, saying he worked in lockstep with the president during the pandemic, Donald Trump.
“California, like many states, red states included, Florida included, moved forward early in the pandemic, working with the Trump administration and the advisors from the Trump administration,” he said.
He added that the findings of an independent review into the state’s response to the disease are due next month.
Newsom was also at pains to point out that Republican lawmakers in Florida “shut down their bars and restaurants before California.”
He then took on Rogan’s qualms over vaccine jabs, particularly in children. “Vaccines save lives,” he said, acknowledging the podcaster’s concerns over vaccines in children, something MAGA hardliners like current Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have tenuously linked to autism.
“I respect that. And that was where there was a lot of feedback with a lot of experts that I had as advisers,” Newsom said on children getting vaccinated.
The Democratic lawmaker then made a broad charge against his critics, saying: “I know everyone’s a godd–n genius now in hindsight. But at the time, none of us knew what we were up against, including the president of the United States, who I worked very closely with… and I say that with the kind of humility he deserves as well… grace that he deserves in terms of the decisions he made early on.”
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