Newsom: San Francisco DA’s Recall Was ‘So Predictable,’ Coverage Was ‘Overwhelming’
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California governor Gavin Newsom said Friday that the recent recall of San Francisco’s liberal district attorney, Chesa Boudin, was “so predictable.”
“That was so predictable, predictable, particularly after the school board recall,” Newsom told Fox 11 Los Angeles. “Nothing about that was surprising.”
Newsom, a former San Francisco mayor, said he didn’t think Boudin’s recall was worthy of the national attention it received as an “arbiter of something farther reaching,” before adding that he “thought the punditry was a little overwhelming on it.”
Sixty percent of San Francisco voters supported the recall of Boudin, two years after the progressive DA was first elected. After Boudin’s election, he vowed to promote “restorative justice” and prison reform through “decarceration.”
His critics say his policies — including catch-and-release and bail reform — have led to an increase in theft and violence in the liberal city.
“I think the issue in San Francisco, in particular, is people want the streets cleaned up – period. Full stop. Enough,” Newsom told Fox 11 on Friday. “They want the streets cleaned up. They want a sense of order from the disorder they’re feeling on the streets.”
Newsom said that while crime is one component, “there’s a lot of conflation of those issues,” including mental health, open use of drugs, and the “dirtiness” in parts of the city.
“And tag, the DA was it, meaning there was some attachment of accountability and responsibility,” he said, adding that while all San Francisco officials took some blame, Boudin in particular was held responsible.
Newsom handily won Tuesday night’s California gubernatorial primary just one year after facing his own recall, setting himself up for what should be an easy victory over Republican state senator Brian Dahle in November’s general election.
In September, 62 percent of California voters voted to allow Newsom to remain in office.
Newsom on Friday said he is concerned about “what is going on with the Democratic Party” nationally as far as working on issues like abortion and gun control, but declined to blame President Biden for the party’s inaction.
“It’s not his job to organize at all levels the Democratic Party,” Newsom said of Biden. “That’s the Democratic Party’s responsibility.”
