00:00Governor Gavin Newsom of California finally came out after the primary election and endorsed
00:04Democrat Javier Becerra to replace him. Now, this is a rather easy choice because the other
00:10candidate is Republican Steve Hilton, who campaigned on what a bad job he thinks Gavin
00:15Newsom has done. So, why did Gavin Newsom wait until after the primary to endorse when the
00:20endorsement is just painfully obvious? And there are a couple of answers. First of all,
00:25you have to understand, Gavin Newsom is running for president in 2028,
00:28and there was a risk with so many Democrats in the race that he would back a candidate who lost.
00:34That would not make Newsom look very good heading into the primary election on a national level.
00:40Second, Newsom also wants to make sure that whatever he does politically is done behind the
00:46scenes and not overtly, because he doesn't want to offend any candidate or the constituencies they
00:51represent. To win a presidential primary, you need to build a coalition, and so not endorsing in the
00:57primary was a smart strategy for him as he starts to tour the early primary states of South Carolina,
01:03New Hampshire, and so on. But Donald Trump also has some choices to make during the primary,
01:08and he chose Steve Hilton over Chad Bianco, the sheriff from Riverside County, even though Bianco was
01:14probably more popular with the MAGA base. In fact, at the California Republican Convention,
01:20Bianco won more votes. Trump had to take a political risk, and he went with Hilton. Now,
01:25maybe when you're already president, you're not so concerned about losing political support in your
01:30own party, but nevertheless, it does illustrate a clash of leadership styles between Trump and
01:35between one of the Democrats trying to replace him. Trump takes risky decisions in a very public way,
01:40sometimes in a very controversial way, and Newsom likes to hang back and wait until all the chips fall
01:45where they may, and then come out and say something that people have already decided for themselves.
01:50Whether voters in the Democratic primary think that's a good person to bet on in the presidential
01:54election remains to be seen.
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