(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, expressed reservations regarding the excessive attention directed towards the ongoing trial involving former President Donald Trump.
The trial, which features widely criticized and dubious charges filed by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, has prompted Newsom to caution against what he views as “overindulgence.”
During a Sunday interview with MSNBC host Jen Psaki, as initially reported by Fox News, Newsom said the trial is inadvertently bolstering Trump’s political standing, aiding his popular presidential campaign.
“When we are focusing on him, I do worry electorally that he has a slight advantage,” Newsom told Psaki. “And so, I am a little concerned about the overindulgence around the day-to-day.”
Gavin Newsom says Trump “is a guy that doesn’t care if he is the hero or the heel. He just wants to be the star … When we’re focusing on him I do worry electorally that he has a slight advantage.” pic.twitter.com/V6x1CP9QK8
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 21, 2024
Moreover, Newsom emphasized the importance of addressing issues of importance to Democrats, such as abortion.
“I get it, I totally get it,” he said in response to the media’s fixation on the trial. “The consequential nature of a criminal trial is profound and outsized, in some respect, but not more outsized than democracy, more outsized than Dobbs.” Here, Newsom referred to the Supreme Court case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
In addition to highlighting the left-wing fight for abortion rights, Newsom drew attention to what he termed as “one of the biggest stories of the week,” meaning inclusion of Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the Michigan presidential ballot.
“I tended to be in that camp a little less as it relates to our obsession of focus putting any more bright lights on someone who seeks them no matter how they are ill-conceived or ill-willed in ill-fated his current standing may be.”
Newsom’s remarks come against the backdrop of Trump’s trial, where he faces felony charges pursued by Bragg, stemming from alleged payments made to former porn star Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal in 2016.
Bragg claims that Trump falsified business records to facilitate these payments, purportedly aimed at protecting his presidential campaign from a potential scandal.
Trump has vehemently denied these allegations, while critics have accused Bragg—a Democrat who campaigned for district attorney on the pledge to indict Trump—of employing a dubious legal theory to prosecute Trump.
Specifically, Bragg alleges that Trump violated federal election laws by failing to declare the payments as campaign expenditures. However, Trump has not been charged with such a crime.
