JOE MATHEWS: Newsom will never be America’s president – The Bakersfield Californian

If Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are going to create space for hate and human rights violations, then why should anyone complain about California Gov. Gavin Newsom creating spaces that protect the rest of us?

That’s the question that should be posed to California pundits who have responded with knee-jerk cynicism to Newsom’s many interventions on behalf of Trump’s targets. These pundits describe the governor’s forays into national disputes over abortion, immigration and LGBTQ rights as political ploys — performed in service of presidential ambitions.