Bulwark Takes - Newsom Steps Into the Fire! Shows Dems How to Torch Trump!

Episode Date: June 11, 2025

California Governor Gavin Newsom delivered a fiery and urgent speech last night in response to Donald Trump's crackdown on protests in Los Angeles—and the growing threat of federal overreach. Sam Stein is joined by Lauren Egan, author of The Opposition newsletter, to break down why this speech matters, how it signals a shift in Democratic messaging, and whether Newsom is positioning himself as the party’s leading voice against authoritarianism.

Hey guys, it's me, Sam Stein, managing editor at the Bullwork, and I'm joined by Lauren Egan, who is the author of our opposition newsletter. It's must read and we have one coming out this evening, which you guys are going to want to get. We're here to talk about Gavin Newsom's speech last night, which gets at what opposition is about this week. How Democrats are messaging, reacting to handling Trump's clampdown of the protests in LA and his threat to use the National Guard. Frankly, everywhere. That's what the memorandum says. Lauren, let's just start open ended.

What did you think of the speech last night? I thought it was really interesting. I think that Democrats have really struggled to find sort of like who's the leading voice in this moment, like who's the face of the anti-Trump opposition and Newsom obviously for, you know, he has his own motivations here, but he's definitely positioned himself as that last night. And I think the parties had a hard time sort of making the case that Trump is taking the country on this like scary path towards something that's anti-democratic, right?

Like Harris tried to make that message in? Like, Harris tried to make that message in the campaign, Biden tried to make that message for four years, and they really struggled to do it. And I thought that Newsom's speech last night, he was pretty effective in making that case. He basically talked about like, this is the start of what authoritarian looks like, and it's not just going to happen in LA, like it's going to happen, it can happen anywhere in the country. And he talked about how this is sort of like the beginning of what democracy unraveling can look like. And he did it in a way that I thought was like, he made the, laid out the case pretty clearly. And it wasn't

sort of like sensationalized, I didn't feel like, or sort of like fear mongering. He made, I thought, a pretty like clear argument. Why do you think I've struggled with this, but why do you think Harris and Biden had trouble making this case, considering the fact, I mean, Biden obviously did win election, but considering the fact that January 6 happened, why would they have trouble making the case and why would it work better for Newsom now? Maybe it's just recency, right? Like January 6 had receded. But I don't know. Is it a salient issue for voters? I think that's part of it. I mean, like if we're talking about Biden, we also have to acknowledge the fact that like the messenger matters. And he was just

never going to be in a place where he could effectively deliver that message. But Newsom, I think, Biden and Harris would often talk about democracy and frame everything around democracy. And Newsom did use that word in his speech last night, but he's doing a better job. I think of like explaining what that means. And to your point, like when people are getting like snatched off the street and Trump sending in, uh, you know, the national guard, when Newsom doesn't want them there, it's a lot easier to sort of make that case. Um, especially like when he's literally in office and obviously with Biden, like

Biden was in office, so it Biden like Biden was in office. So it's a bit different. Right. I guess, you know, when you move away from January 6, people can kind of come to grips with it emotionally, politically. But when you're living through it, maybe it has more salience. I don't know. I'm curious to see how it lands. And, you know, obviously, and you can pick up on this, like for Newsom, it's kind of a, it's an interesting shift even from a couple of weeks ago when he's, you know, he's been on this podcast kick where he's talking to Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon and all that stuff. And, you know, I think to a degree he was trying to play nice with Trump. It wasn't not quite at the Whitmer levels, but he certainly wasn't, you know,

an outright oppositional all the time figure, but this is different. Yeah. I mean, it's just like literally two months ago, he had Steve Bannon on his podcast and Charlie Crew on his podcast and took a lot of heat for that. And I think cynics will look at Newsome and say, he's opportunistic and this is all, he's a slippery politician who will, um, you know, do what he needs to. Um, but I also think there's probably an element to that that makes him effective to deliver this message.

Cause he's kind of like, he's sort of been like, look, I'm not out here sort of like trying to be a fear monger or like tell you the world is ending when like it's not actually ending. Like, Oh, so you think he got credibility from talking with Kirk? I think a little, I mean, we have like, it's literally been like 12 hours, not even. So like, let's see, like, sort of what happens. But I do think that there is, there could be some, some of that to this, where he's kind of like, look, I'm not trying to like, you know, tell you that the world is ending when it's not like, I've tried to sort of like, you know, reach across the aisle, so to speak to these guys and I'm willing to engage with them.

But like, this is fucked up and like, let's just say it. Well, let's play that clip where he talks about like, you know, the moment we feared has arrived. This is about all of us. This is about you. California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment, we have feared, has arrived. He's taking a wrecking ball. A wrecking ball to our founding

father's historic project. Three co-equal branches of independent government. There are no longer any checks and balances. Congress is nowhere to be found. Speaker Johnson has completely abdicated that responsibility. The rule of law has increasingly been given way to the rule of Don. The founding fathers, they didn't live and die to see this kind of moment. It's time for all of us to stand up. Justice Brandeis, you said it best. In a democracy, the most important office, with all due respect, Mr. President, is not the presidency.

And it's certainly not Governor. The most important office is Office of Citizen. At this moment, at this moment, we all need to stand up and be held to account a higher level of accountability. If you exercise your First Amendment rights, please, please do it peacefully. I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress, and fear, but I want you to know that you are the antidote to that fear and that anxiety. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him. So, yeah, I mean, like the rhetoric is pretty aggressive, right? I mean, that is that's

about as alarmist as you can get. Sounds like a bulwark piece, frankly. But also, you know, the other thing that I've kind of been noticing is like tactically, his team has really been highly aggressive online. I mean, I don't think Gavin Newsom is writing his tweets. Let me just put that out there. I don't think he's on the phone being like, but I do think his team is and they're like going after lawmakers and Trump, they're they're quite you know, if if Mike Johnson or Markway Mullen or whoever is like saying,

I get the murderers under control in California, they're responding with stats pointing out that per capita murder rates are worse in their states. I mean, they're like, the high level combat stuff is also happening in ways that I don't really recall other Democrats doing, at least at this level. Yeah, I mean, to me, that's just like, he's running for president quite clearly.

No, you're so cynical. Oh my god, come on. You think that too. I mean, sure, maybe, maybe. I'm not going to rule it out. But I think, frankly, in this moment, he's just like, I am under incredible pressure from the federal government. Like, they're not at, it's like, we're in this place where it's like the federal

government is not here to help me. They're here to use me and turn me into an example for their own purposes. I mean, that's frankly, I think, am I wrong? And that's clearly what's happening here. And so he's got to figure out, you know, both, how do I get the thing under control when the federal government is trying to probably manipulate it to its own means? I mean, yes, Donald Trump says he wants to get it under control, but I think we all realize

that Donald Trump is totally fine if things kind of spiral because the protests work to his benefit. And two, the White House social media feed is not encouraging me to help out or encouraging me and cheering me on. They're attacking me. So it's like, you know, we're just in a place where this is totally abnormal. I mean, it's like, we're two governing entities that are supposed to be trying to manage the situation are actually at odds in this situation. It's I feel like that's kind of getting lost here. We're not working in concert.

Yeah, I think that's right. The cynic in me is like, he's running. Oh, he's running for president. This is a platform you're so cynical. Take the girl out of Politico. But I can't tell my god, girl, please, you're one to talk. Um, I also think like, I don't know, the party's just sort of had this whole debate about like, are we in an in an existential moment or not? Do you how do you fight Trump? Do you fight Trump? How much do you fight Trump? Or do you try and work with him?

And I think to like what you're saying, I think Newsom's kind of like, well, we have our answer. There's no working with him. Like we've like this is at least on this issue. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know. I think that that that parts, it's sort of like forcing that debate again. And I think you talk, you talk to people on Capitol Hill and they'll all say like this moment for the party is not really like left versus right. It's fight, fight or not fight.

How do you deal with Trump? Is this an existential moment or not? And that's kind of like the dividing line. Well, give us a taste then of what you're getting from your report. I know it's going to be in the newsletter tonight, but like, what are the answers that you're hearing from the party on those questions? Not many people have answers on it. It depends who you ask.

And on the LA situation in particular, I think there is really a disagreement about, you know, how do you talk about it? Democrats, obviously anything with immigration, Democrats are just like panic and freak out and don't want to touch. And so I think there's a, you know, some lawmakers who are like, let's just pivot. Let's talk about how Trump wants to go after Medicaid. Let's talk about healthcare cuts. Let's say that this is a distraction. The whole situation in LA is a distraction, which

it might be, Trump might be trying to distract from what's going on on Capitol Hill. But the reality is, this is happening. It doesn't really matter to some extent whether or not it's a distraction, it's happening. And it's kind of ignoring or trying to sort of sugarcoat the fact that Democrats aren't in power. Republicans do have the ability to sort of set the agenda and set the conversation. And to some extent, Democrats like can't shy away from that, they're going to have to engage on it. And you just see the party kind of like in disagreement about it where some people are like, yeah, we got to fucking talk about this because this is really bad and it's a big deal. And other people are like, nope, it's a distraction. Let's talk about the bill.

I just don't, I don't get, maybe I'm crazy. Maybe this is my naivete, but it's like, why is this a distraction for Trump? This is like the project, right? Like this is what Stephen Miller wants to do. This is what Trump wants to do. They set the tones here. They were the ones saying go go out and ramp up deep rotations to 3000 a day or whatever it was. Go and sit outside Home Depot. This is not

the distraction. This is the project. This is the whole thing. He explicitly ran on this. Right. How can you not engage? It's like saying to like, you know, an athlete, oh, you know, that game that just started, just worry about practice, like, what are we talking about? Right. And again, yeah, it's like, whether or not it's a distraction is almost, I think, just kind of like a silly thing to even argue over because like, it's happening, like he's doing it. So either engage on it or just like, you know, otherwise,

just sort of what what are you going to do? Throw your hands up and say, oh, really sucks. Like, it's kind of ridiculous. Yeah, I guess I'm curious. Also, maybe this is something we could report out before we could send tonight. But like, you know, is Pritzker, is Whitmer, you know, are any other Democratic governors like taking notes here? Because it's going to come to their state, right? Like, this is not a California problem. Are any other Democratic governors taking notes here?

Because it's going to come to their state, right? This is not a California problem. Right now it is, but it's not going to be just a California problem. Right. I mean, Lusen said that in his speech last night. He made it clear like this. He believes that it's not just California. I can't really, I mean, who knows?

Maybe the red states aren't safe too. There were protests last night in Chicago? Yeah. I'd be curious to see if there were protests in like, I guess, what were the red states like, you know, well, in terms like a Bashir Houston, like sending Austin, Texas. I'm talking about like states run by Republican government. Yeah, I don't I don't foresee that being an issue, but whatever. We'll see. Yeah, that's clearly the like the point he's trying to make or it's like it's me now, but it's you tomorrow and the party needs to wake up and take this a lot more seriously. Well, I thought it was an interesting speech last night for sure. Technical issues aside,

it had, it did struggle with the volume early on. I'm not trying to be a theater critic, but that did happen. Yeah, but like, you know, who's watching? No one's watching it live these days. It's okay. Well, when you advertise a big speech at 930, you should have the audio working out. Putting that aside, because that's trivial. I honestly thought it was a good speech. I think it hit the notes that needed to be hit. I guess the fear is, do people look at it and be like, oh, he's just being alarmist. Axelrod and Neera Tanden had this back

and forth about this too. I think Axelrod and Neera Tanden had this back and forth about this too. It's like, I think Axelrod's point from summarizing it correctly, it's like, it's really hard to be like, don't riot, but also Donald Trump is like an existential threat that you need to oppose. And Neera's point I think was like, actually, you can say both and it's pretty easy. Like don't, you know, don't burn cars, but also, you know, resist what's happening. And so I don't know if, but also resist what's happening. And so I don't know if Newsom threaded that, but maybe.

I thought he did, but I mean, like again, this is where just how people consume this information is like actually really does matter because like, you know, you just like go on TikTok and you're just like fed a bunch of shit of like, you know, the like car is burning and it's like, you know, that's the perception that people are left with. You can just see how Republicans can really do this. Sure. Well, it works both ways

and we can end here but like I've been being fed a lot of stuff of like really like alarming scenes from LA where like this like for instance this one where this girl is just walking to her home and she's shot with a rubber bullet and it's just like what the fuck was that? That's for another time. Lauren thank you so much for talking us through this. I am curious to see uh first draft of the newsletter and also the final product I think is going to be great because tough moment for party, but it's a necessary moment for them to tackle. So, appreciate you doing this. Appreciate you guys for watching this.

Thank you so much. We keep bringing you content like this and we will talk soon.