VICTOR JOECKS: Newsom’s Chicken Little claims are dangerous

California Gov. Gavin Newsom sees conspiracy theories as his ticket to the 2028 Democrat presidential nomination. He doesn’t appear worried that this strategy comes with a body count.

“I fear that we will not have an election in 2028,” Newsom told “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert last week.

In a sane world, this would have gotten Newsom laughed off the stage. At the very least, it should have been reported with the same skepticism as someone who claimed the sky is falling. But it wasn’t. The propaganda press simply regurgitated his baseless assertion in numerous headlines.

Contrast that with this 2020 New York Times headline: “Senator Tom Cotton repeats fringe theory of coronavirus origins.”

Of course, the lab leak theory is now acknowledged as the most likely explanation for the global pandemic.

“CIA now favors lab leak theory to explain COVID’s origins,” the Times wrote in January.

Nice of them to notice after spending years attacking those who had it correct from the start. This is another example of why the public’s trust in the press keeps reaching new lows.

Newsom isn’t the first Democrat to claim Republicans are an existential threat to the country. Joe Biden did it in his dark 2022 speech outside Independence Hall.

During the campaign last year, Kamala Harris wrote on X, “Donald Trump is a threat to our democracy.”

Note to Democrats: Losing an election isn’t a threat to democracy. It is democracy.

The best evidence that Newsom isn’t worried about the 2028 election being canceled is his shameless pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination. This year, he debuted a new podcast and sought out those with whom he disagreed.

At the time, Newsom said this about the MAGA movement: “I want to understand what the motivations are, the legitimacy of those motivations, and just really understand where people are coming from.”

His first guest was Charlie Kirk, who got Newsom to admit that men competing in women’s sports is “deeply unfair.”

Newsom soon realized that civil conversations weren’t going to win the Democratic presidential nomination. The left wanted someone to oppose Trump at every turn. And so, Newsom switched personalities and became the left’s attack dog. ICE agents are a frequent target.

“It’s like a dystopian sci-fi movie,” he said last month about ICE agents wearing masks. “Unmarked cars, people in masks, people quite literally disappearing.”

Last month, he signed a bill prohibiting law enforcement from wearing masks. Newsom said, “To ICE — unmask. What are you afraid of?”

They’re concerned about leftists taking Newsom’s rhetoric seriously. Last week, a man shot at an ICE facility in Dallas, killing two detainees and injuring two others.

“Hopefully this will give ICE agents real terror, to think, ‘is there a sniper with (armor-piercing) rounds on that roof?’,” the suspected gunman, who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, wrote in a note.

In other words, a suspected murderer was acting like he was in a dystopian sci-fi movie where democracy was under attack. Where would he have gotten that idea?

Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.