Gavin Newsom’s MLK-Gandhi ramble in Adam Friedland interview fuels ‘too slick for White House’ claims

Gov. Gavin Newsom has been ridiculed for delivering a wildly rambling response when asked a straightforward question about his brand of politics — invoking MLK Jr., Gandhi and the “spirit of the ’60s.”

The scrambled answer given during an interview with comedian and podcast host Adam Friedland as part of his book tour reveals how he may struggle to convince Americans he is “authentic” during an expected run for president, experts say.

It was also on-brand for those who have seen Newsom rise up the political ladder over nearly three decades, offering an insight into his biggest Achilles’ heel: a thirst for the limelight but an inability to get out of his own way.

‘I don’t have a brand’

“You know, I don’t have like a brand, I don’t have a tag — Make America Great or the Great Society or something like Medicare for All,” Newsom said.

“But for me, no bulls–t, it’s just standing up for ideals, striking out against injustice that defines my ‘why’ in every way, shape, form.”

Had he stopped there, Newsom may have saved himself from ridicule. He didn’t stop there.

“Stand up for ideals. Strike out against injustice,” Newsom continued. “I’m a Sargent Shriver Democrat. I mean, in that whole ’60s, the vernacular, the ’60s, solving for ignorance and poverty, disease and the spirit of the ’60s, the spirit of King, by the movement in Gandhi and Mandela, that whole set of moral authority space.

“That’s the zeitgeist, yeah, and that’s that. So that’s me. That’s my dad. So it’s my mom, that’s the book, and that’s my ‘why.’ ”

Friedland followed up: “So if you had to define it: ‘Vote for me and you get X.’ ”
“I just gave you my ‘why,’ ” Newsom responded. “But how do you translate that into human?”
‘It’s not going well’

Izza Gardon, a spokesperson for Newsom, declined to answer The Post’s questions regarding the governor’s comments and book tour.

Viewers, including former Fox News host Megyn Kelly, couldn’t believe their ears and mocked Newsom’s meandering response.“

Gandhi and Nelson Mandela and Sarge Striver and zeitgeist and I’m not good at this,” Kelly laughed. “It’s not going well.”

Social media critics agreed. “I think that classifies as a word salad,” one wrote on Facebook.

“Did he go to the same school as Kamala?” another asked, referencing the former vice president’s penchant for convoluted answers.

David Latterman, a political analyst in San Francisco, said the interview shows how he fails to deal with any “objective criticism.’’

“He isn’t a fake in that he does care about that deep Democratic stuff, but he’s also nakedly ambitious. It makes you wonder how he’s going to deal with the scrutiny of running for president.”

Jason McDaniel, a political science professor at San Francisco State University, said Newsom’s brand as an up-and-coming mayor was “muscular liberalism” which has now extended to tit-for-tat social media clashes with Trump.

But that may not be enough for a Democratic presidential candidate in 2028.

“It comes across as inauthentic and that’s been his main problem,” he said.

‘‘A little too slick”

Carla Marinucci, a veteran journalist who now works as a political analyst, told The Post Newsom’s evolving political personality was a strength — and weakness.

“He tries to be a very careful navigator of the political waters and that ends up looking a little too slick,” she said.

“He has managed to navigate some very sticky and controversial political issues, such as gay marriage, but he also wades into things at times with the word-salad approach and that doesn’t help him.”

Corrin Rankin, chairwoman of the California Republican Party, told The Post that Newsom’s “problem is not how he talks about his politics, it’s the trail of crises his politics created.”

“California under Newsom became a state of overlapping failures: the worst homelessness crisis in the country, a home insurance meltdown . . ., gas prices far above the national average.”

Newsom has carved out a liberal track record of taking risks, such as legalizing gay marriage in San Francisco in 2004 and then aggressively opposing President Trump’s agenda.

But those “big, hairy, audacious” efforts, as Newsom prefers to call his pet projects, haven’t stopped him from regularly falling into lock-step with the Democratic establishment and the elites who fund the party.

These connections helped rise from a caddish San Francisco booze merchant who benefited from his family’s billionaire connections with the Getty family to supervisor, mayor and eventually the state’s lieutenant governor and top elected official

Newsom is quick to bristle over how much he has benefited from longstanding ties to society’s upper crust, as well as criticism from his own Democratic colleagues — whether it be his lack of follow through on policy to personal indiscretions, such as as his scandalous affair as mayor or a Michelin-star dinner in violation of pandemic restrictions that sparked a $200 million recall election.

But the results haven’t always materialized in ways Newsom would have hoped. San Francisco now has a homeless industrial complex that became the broken mold for other major cities across California.

As governor, Newsom has allowed the state’s budget to skyrocket as nine-figure surpluses quickly descended into deficits in the billions. His touted clean energy policies such as Cap and Trade — now the rebranded “Cap and Invest” — have contributed to California gas prices surging after they were already the highest in the country.

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