(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) California Gov. Gavin Newsom used a crude remark Monday to mock Indiana Gov. Mike Braun’s recent calls for a legislative session to consider redistricting measures, a move President Donald Trump has recently urged GOP-led states to pursue.
Newsom responded directly to Braun’s press statement, writing on X: “Looks like Governor Braun needs some knee pads.”
Critics interpreted the comment as a reference to oral sex involving Trump, with the knee pads widely understood as a reference to protection during the sexual act.
Looks like Governor Braun needs some knee pads. https://t.co/56znsGNLmf
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) October 27, 2025
Meanwhile, Braun’s redistricting push followed Trump’s calls for GOP governors to act against decades of Democratic gerrymandering.
Braun wrote in a press statement that his move is aimed at protecting his constituents from out-of-state efforts “that seek to diminish their voice in Washington.”
Newsom’s response to Braun drew immediate criticism from commentators, including National Review journalist Jim Geraghty, who wrote: “Okay, so, just to check with the rest of the left-of-center American political spectrum, gay jokes are okay now, right?”
He added, “If you think some political figure is excessively subservient to another, you can claim he is a closeted gay man performing oral sex, right?”
Republican politician John Dennis echoed the concern, sarcastically asking, “How does the gay community feel about this comment?”
Newsom’s joke echoed commentary from some social media users who mocked former Vice President Kamala Harris and her unconventional rise to power in California.
During the 2024 campaign, critics quipped that Harris advanced politically by offering sexual favors. The jokes referenced Harris’s 1990s affair with Willie Brown, then a married and powerful politician in San Francisco, who appointed her to influential boards despite her lack of experience.
These attacks were widely condemned as misogynistic, with the legacy media often trying to blame Trump for them.
Headlines like The New York Times’s “Trump Reposts Crude Sexual Remark About Harris on Truth Social” or The Washington Post’s “Trump welcomes rallygoer’s insult of Harris as a prostitute” were common, despite neither article showing that Trump originated the comments. Yet neither outlet has reported on Newsom’s crude comment.
