Gavin Newsom has dismissed claims he could replace Joe Biden on the presidential ticket as “a farce” and said it was “really nerve-wracking” to have to answer questions about whether he could replace the 81-year-old.
The California governor made the comments to DailyMail.com as he walked the red carpet in the CNN newsroom ahead of the presidential debate in Atlanta between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The Democrat, who many believe will run for president in the future, began by praising Biden’s accomplishments and criticizing Trump.
When DailyMail.com specifically pressed him on whether he would be willing to replace Biden if the 81-year-old president retires before this year’s election, Newsom rebuffed him.
“It’s a fallacy. I don’t even understand the context of that,” he replied.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says the idea he would replace Joe Biden as the Democratic front-runner is “a farce” and that Biden is his man.
“This is a president of the United States running for re-election. He’s our candidate. And that’s part of the right’s diversionary tactics: to continue to muddy the waters with all this and all this senseless speculation,” he said.
“It’s like the absurdity of knowing who’s going to get a shot. I mean, this is a farce. This is serious stuff: democracy, freedom, rights,” the California Democrat continued.
He said he found it “really distressing” to have to talk about the idea of replacing the 81-year-old president, who is already the oldest in US history.
“And to see it trivialized, as we are trivializing it by even having these conversations, is really distressing to me as an American citizen, not just as a Democrat.”
And it’s not as important as avoiding another Trump presidency, he added.
Newsom stated that Biden has “done an extraordinary job in three and a half years,” noting how he “created eight times as many jobs as the last three Republican administrations combined.”
“We’re going to talk about an economy that has recovered strongly, about inflation that has been controlled,” the California Democrat said in a rosy tone. “We’re going to talk about a vision for the future.”
Trump and Biden will face off in the first presidential debate of 2024 on Thursday at 9 p.m.
And then he praised the president again.
‘We will talk about American industrial and manufacturing policy and the bipartisan achievements of this administration.’
“And we’re going to compare and contrast that with a dystopian vision of the future that is darker.”
‘Where one feeds on revenge and incriminations in the content of Trump’s desire to seek the presidency for a second time.’
He also dismissed questions about Biden’s mental acuity and fitness after age became a clear centerpiece of this year’s election.
Specifically, he downplayed criticism of Biden freezing at a fundraiser in Los Angeles earlier this month. Former President Barack Obama was forced to grab and guide his former vice president off the stage.
“So weaponizing these clips was ridiculous,” Newsom told CNN during an interview before the debate.
“That’s spending hours and hours in line to take pictures with President Obama,” the governor added. “He had just come back from the G7… he had barely slept. Nobody could have kept up with that schedule.”
“She did a wonderful job privately with all the donors, with surrogates, she did an incredible job on stage.”
Former President Barack Obama was seen gently pulling Biden’s arm and leading him off stage after the president froze at a fundraising event in Los Angeles earlier this month.