XPost: alt.politics.trump, sac.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.society.liberalism   
   From: noreply@mixmin.net   
      
   Gavin Newsom appeared to backtrack on inflammatory rhetoric from his own   
   press team during a tense interview with conservative commentator Ben   
   Shapiro on Thursday.   
      
   The California Governor was grilled by Sharpio on his own podcast “This   
   is Gavin Newsom” in an exchange in which the two clashed over   
   immigration enforcement, political rhetoric and gender identity.   
      
   One of the biggest flashpoints came when the rumored presidential   
   hopeful was confronted by Shapiro about the language his own office used   
   about the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE officer in Minneapolis,   
   which they called an act of “state-sponsored terrorism.”   
      
   The incident has sparked national controversy and led to furious debate   
   about law enforcement tactics and rhetoric surrounding federal   
   immigration authorities.   
      
   “Your press office tweeted out that it was state-sponsored terrorism,”   
   Shapiro said, before pushing back on the characterization of federal   
   agents.   
      
   “Our ICE officers obviously are not terrorists,” Shapiro added.   
      
   “Yeah, I think that’s fair,” Newsom agreed. The governor also said he   
   “disagreed” that ICE should be abolished.   
      
   The moment quickly went viral, with critics seizing on the exchange as   
   evidence the governor was at odds with messaging coming from his own   
   communications team.   
      
   The discussion later turned to education and gender identity, where   
   Shapiro repeatedly pressed Newsom on whether he believes biological sex   
   can be changed and whether children should be taught otherwise in public   
   schools.   
      
   “There are certainly cases in which kids are being socially transitioned   
   at school without parents knowing about it,” Shapiro said. “The   
   fundamental question… is whether boys can become girls.”   
      
   Newsom struggled to give a direct answer, “Yeah… well, I think… for the   
   grace of God… yeah.”   
      
   Shapiro then asked why the question was so difficult to answer.   
      
   “We’re talking about so few people,” Newsom said, adding that the issue   
   was surrounded by “so much hate, and bigotry, so much condemnation.”   
      
   Shapiro rejected that framing, arguing that his position was neither   
   hateful nor discriminatory.   
      
   “It is not an act of bigotry to say that a boy cannot become a girl, nor   
   should my children be taught in K-12 public schools that a boy can   
   become a girl,” he said. “That’s not an act of bigotry; that’s an act   
   of   
   rationality and biological simplicity.”   
      
   Despite repeated follow-ups, Newsom declined to give a clear yes-or-no   
   answer, returning instead to vague language.   
      
   Newsom also squirmed when Shapiro praised President Trump as the   
   greatest foreign policy president in his lifetime and demanded to know   
   why he wouldn’t “radically” reduce income tax for Californians.   
      
   Shapiro described the rhetoric from Newsom that Trump would try to run   
   again in 2028 as dangerous and claimed he didn’t really believe it. But   
   Newsom maintained he did.   
      
   https://nypost.com/2026/01/15/us-news/gavin-newsom-backtracks-on-outrageo   
   us-ice-claims-made-by-his-own-team-in-shapiro-interview/   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)