California Gov. Gavin Newsom has become one of the Democratic Party’s most visible critics of President Donald Trump and is frequently named as a potential 2028 presidential contender. In an interview that aired Monday on PBS NewsHour, the governor offered a candid assessment of where his party stands. The ideas of the Democratic Socialists of America, he said, are already being worked into the Democratic platform, and he described that alignment as a healthy development for the party.

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From Breitbart:

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 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.”

The full NewsHour interview, which Nawaz conducted as Newsom campaigned and raised money for Democrats in North and South Carolina, showed a party leader pressing his own side to be more assertive. Newsom argued that Democrats had taken their eyes off state-level politics and said his party needed to “grow a backbone.” He urged Democrats to win control of state legislatures and then to put that power to use once they had it.

The interview also touched on foreign policy and the Middle East. Newsom said opposition to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is near-universal among Democrats, citing settler violence in the West Bank and Netanyahu’s rejection of a two-state solution. He described Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel as horrific and unacceptable, while maintaining that most Democrats agree on that judgment even as they criticize Netanyahu’s government. His comments on DSA arrived amid a primary season in which socialist-aligned candidates have won a string of races, including Donavan McKinney in Michigan, Chris Rabb in Pennsylvania and Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan, who does not identify as DSA but has been aligned with the group’s positions. Newsom framed the DSA label as nothing new, comparing it to the “progressive” and Green Party labels that have circulated within left-leaning politics for decades.

For Christians who care about the direction of the country, Newsom’s comments are a reminder that political labels can shift while the underlying worldview stays the same. Scripture calls believers to be discerning, testing every idea against what is true rather than accepting a movement simply because it wears a familiar or reassuring name. Policies built on placing ultimate trust in government to provide health care, security and economic justice can crowd out the biblical truth that God alone is the source of provision and hope. At the same time, Newsom’s remarks on Israel are a reminder that believers are called to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and to support Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, even amid legitimate debate over specific policies of its government.

Let us pray for wisdom for our nation’s leaders and discernment for the church as it engages with shifting political movements.

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(Excerpt from Breitbart. Photo Credit: Bureau of Reclamation – https://www.flickr.com/photos/usbr/53633995524/, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=147264399).