Newsom talking across the aisle

Politico reports:

Gavin Newsom is fully embracing his status as his party’s foremost podcast bro. …

It got off to a polarizing start last March, with a succession of friendly interviews with conservative influencers like Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. And while the headlines that tended to enrage Democrats have fallen off, the California governor’s podcasting reach has not.

The show has racked up more than 10 million views and has upwards of 230,000 subscribers just on YouTube, and it was the second-highest ranked official podcast channel for a politician, according to a Washington Post analysis, trailing only Sen. Ted Cruz. Across all platforms, the show has racked up more than 120 million views or listens, according to a tally from his office.

And he’s continuing to sit down with conservative firebrands, and yes, some liberal figures too, in the new year. This week, he’s taping a show with Ben Shapiro.

The almost two hour interview is here. I have listened to around an hour of it. I think it reflects very well on Newsom that he will interview people who he strongly disagrees with. At a time when so many in the US think those who disagree with them are an evil that needs to be destroyed, it is a much needed tonic to have a two hour interview between the leading Democratic candidate for President and the leading conservative podcaster. It is how politics should operate – debate and discussion.

I found the Shapiro interview very interesting as Shapiro used to live in California and moved his family and business to Florida, partly because of what he says are bad Democratic policies making LA a bad place to live. So to hear him actually debate these with the Governor was fascinating.