Newsom acknowledged in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday in “The Lead” that he is worried about the withdrawal and expects it to qualify.
“All you need is about a quarter of the people who voted for Donald Trump to get this withdrawal request to voters this November, so I’m expected to continue (the ballot). We take it very seriously.” , Newsom told Tapper.
He characterized some of the advocates of the retreat as members of right-wing militia groups, conspiracy theorists, and white supremacist groups. When pressured by Tapper about the broad base of support the retreat has garnered between Republicans and independents, Newsom acknowledged that “it’s been a difficult year and, in hindsight, we’re all experts.”
Newsom spoke with Tapper a day before the deadline for advocates of the withdrawal to submit nearly 1.5 million signatures to state county registrars for verification. Organizers said last week that they had already collected about $ 2 million, a goal they set to account for duplicates or invalid entries. (The state-set threshold of 1,495,709 signatures for the withdrawal to qualify equates to 12% of the vote in the last government election).
Now that it seems likely that the withdrawal will qualify for the vote, Newsom has abruptly changed course, moving from clearing questions about it to calling it a serious threat to Californians that will jeopardize the progressive goals it has championed. In the past two days, the governor has been involved in an unusual media bombardment when his team launched its new counter-effort, Stop the Republican Recall, to raise money and shoot Democratic support, turning the supporters of the retreat into extremists. , anti-vaxxers and the kind of violent insurgents who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 in support of Trump.
If the measure meets the requirements, voters would be asked in a first question if they want to remember Newsom and then in a second question to ask who it should be replaced with, which is likely to be a long list of names as it was when the former governor. Gray Davis, a Democrat, was recalled in 2003. Through the same process, former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger – a Republican – was elected Davis’ successor.
