California Governor Gavin Newsom remains steadfastly on Team Biden: ‘No state has more to lose’

As other Democrats question President Joe Biden’s ability to campaign, Gov. Gavin Newsom is holding the line as a steadfast ally.

“There’s no balance. I’m all in, working day in and day out” to get Biden reelected, he said Wednesday, days after returning from a holiday weekend campaign trip in swing states for Biden and other Democrats.

“I have a responsibility to meet this moment,” Newsom said. “I felt a responsibility to miss my family on the 4th of July and to be there for this country, for our promise and what we’re promoting.”

Ten Democratic members of Congress have called on the president to drop out of the race following the president’s disastrous debate and 19 others have expressed concern about his ability to defeat former President Donald Trump in a November rematch, according to a tracker by NPR.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the former Speaker and a prolific fundraiser for Democratic campaigns, declined to fully back Biden Wednesday morning, saying it’s “up to the president to decide if he is going to run.”

“We’re all encouraging him to make that decision because time is running short,” she said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

Newsom said he “did not hear the context” of Pelosi’s comments “but I did hear of it … so I honestly don’t have much to say about that.”

“Even what I understood her to say, it’s unsurprising in that respect. It is obviously a decision of the President of the United States” whether to stay in the race, he said.

The governor made the comments at a news event to promote the state’s response to wildfires and a deadly heat wave blanketing the west.

Flanked by aerial firefighting equipment at a Cal Fire air base north of Sacramento, the governor and fire officials said California’s fire season is off to a dangerous start. More than 3,500 wildfires have burned a total of more than 207,000 acres so far this year, said Cal Fire chief Joe Tyler.

“The same time last year, we were down 538 fires and we have burned 197,000 more acres this year than we did last year,” Tyler said.

Fire officials say lingering hot, dry weather, combined with winds have exacerbated fire conditions across the state.

A protracted heat wave has shattered temperature records around California and other western states and left millions of people under warnings for dangerous heat.

When asked about leaving the state at the height of a heat wave over the July 4th Holiday, Newsom said emergency operations staff have been keeping tabs on conditions.

“This is tough business. There’s a lot going on in the world we’re living in and I’m proud of the work the state has done,” he said.

Newsom left California last Wednesday to meet with Biden and other Democratic governors at the White House following the CNN presidential debate.

The governor has continued to publicly back Biden and campaign for him and other Democratic candidates, most recently visiting New Hampshire, Michigan and Pennsylvania over the July 4th weekend.

Newsom thanked Biden for transferring seven C-130 aircraft to the state for wildland firefighting.

“For years and years and years we had to battle with the previous administration to get the C-130s. We couldn’t get them,” Newsom said. “We finally had them shipped out here, all seven of them.”

He said it illustrates all that is at stake for California in the 2024 presidential election.

“Everything about this campaign will impact the state disproportionately,” he said before mentioning California’s 122 lawsuits against the Trump administration and the former president mistakenly referring to the town destroyed by wildfire in 2018 as ‘Pleasure’ rather than its proper name of Paradise.

“The chaos, the fear, the anxiety, how we played politics. … No state has more to lose in this context than the greatest state in our nation,” Newsom said.

Last year Newsom said he would support Vice President Kamala Harris if she decided to run for president.

Asked if it were still true should Biden drop out of the race, Newsom said “of course.”