Gavin Newsom claims he doesn’t want to be president, then says ‘there’s nothing more’ he ‘dislikes’ than a ‘politician that sits there and lies to you’

Speaking on Meet the Press, Newsom pushed back when asked directly why he wants to be president. “I don’t,” he said flatly, before clarifying that speculation about a campaign didn’t come from him. “Nothing I dislike more than the politician that sits there and lies to you, and we all just sit there rolling our eyes going, give me a break,” he added.

The Democratic governor said his current focus is on “Prop 50,” as well as “fair and free elections,” insisting that any decision about higher office would depend on timing and circumstance. “To the extent fate, the future, there’s an alignment — you have a big enough why, you have a what and a how, you meet a moment, and that moment presents itself in a year, year and a half, we’ll see what happens,” he said.

Earlier this year, Newsom acknowledged he’d “be lying otherwise” if he said he wasn’t considering a possible 2028 run once his term as governor ends. During Sunday’s sit-down, he again hinted that ambition isn’t out of the question but emphasized that voters will ultimately shape the country’s next chapter.

“I love people,” Newsom said when asked about his time campaigning in South Carolina. “Thank God, I’m in the right business.”

When asked about the future of the Democratic Party and his own role in it, Newsom was pressed on his support for then-President Biden following his rocky debate earlier this year.

Despite widespread concern within the party, Newsom said he never doubted Biden’s ability to serve. “I never had that,” he told Meet the Press, adding that he’d spoken with Biden just hours before the interview. The governor said he spent nearly two hours with the former president in the Oval Office last December and came away confident. “My experience, his expression, gave me no pause, no doubt.”