Gavin Newsom Inspires While Waking Up Democrats With Must Watch Speech

Gov. Gavin Newsom is the governor of the 4th largest economy in the world, and he has found a way to respond to Donald Trump's attack on the United States that still upholds democratic values.

Please support The Daily by becoming a subscriber.

This is a must watch speech.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s speech will be attacked, lied about, dissected, and misconstrued for the next several years, so it behooves everyone who cares about democracy to actually watch the entire speech.

(Or read it, I’ve included a transcript.)

The Governor of California, which recently surpassed Japan to become the world's fourth-largest economy, told us he is not not just willing to do something about Trump’s assault on this country, but he is GOING to do something about it — and, he has found a way to live up to the values of Democrats while he does it.

Gavin Newsom is going to let the people of California vote on a temporary redistricting plan that is a response to Donald Trump’s rigging of the midterms. The maps will go directly on the ballot for voters to decide, not politicians. He drew an important comparison between the back room dealings in Texas done at the behest of a president who is tanking in his approval ratings to California’s approach.

Watch the whole speech or read the transcript below (I've highlighted important pieces):

In the spirit of that African proverb that Senator Padilla was referencing, you want to go fast, go alone. You want to go far, go together. And I look back at this audience, and I look at all of you united in this cause, and I'm reminded where we are at this precious moment in time.

We are in Los Angeles, the most diverse city in the most diverse county, in the most diverse state, in the world's most diverse democracy, and I've long believed that the world looks to us, to all of you, to see it as possible, to live together and advance together and prosper together across every conceivable and imaginable difference.

What makes LA Great? What makes California great, and what makes the United States of America great, is at our best, we don't tolerate our diversity, we celebrate our diversity, and it's a point of pride, because we're all in this together.

Where are we at democracy center — and right outside, at this exact moment, dozens and dozens of ICE agents. Donald Trump. You think it's coincidental? Donald Trump and his minions, Tom Holman, tough guy, clearly decided, coincidentally or not that this was a location to advance ice arrest. Indiscriminate? Perhaps. We'll find out later.

We're certainly indiscriminate when a 15 year old disabled boy had a gun put to his head in Los Angeles trying to go to school just a few days ago. I don't need to belabor this, except I want a level set.

People are scared. People are fearful. You had a United States senator that was thrown down to the ground in a federal building. Alex Padilla. JD Vance, his name is Alex Padilla, not Jose Padilla. That's the vice president United States. It's another museum not so far away from us, talks about those 53 days. Some of you know what I'm referring to.

Wake up America. This is serious moment. Wake up to what's going on. Wake up to the fear, the anxiety. Wake up to what's happening, not just here in Los Angeles, where we saw our streets, military, militarized, which are due process rights, thrown out the window.

You heard the word disappeared. I was with a 12 year old boy born in Oxnard, California, whose mother and father were disappeared 20 years going to the same packing facility every single day. Didn't even know God to get back into his own home, into his own house. Had no brothers and sisters. He has now disappeared in an attempt to find his parents.

That's Trump's America. That's the moment we're living in. So these are sober times, and so I'm deeply grateful to all of you for standing up and for being here today. I'm grateful for all the elected officials that are here, members of Congress, not just our two US senators, two members of the California Legislature, for having the courage of their convictions, for standing tall and standing firm to recognize today is Liberation Day in the State of California. Senator Schiff said, as Senator Schiff said, ‘Donald Trump, you have poked the bear and we will punch back.’

Here's the good thing about California, folks, we're the size of 21 state populations combined. We're the fourth largest economy in the world. We're not a small, isolated state. I know they say, Don't Mess With Texas. Don't mess with the great Golden State.

We're here with our state of mind, with the clarity of our purpose and conviction to recognize that we need to reconcile the world we're living in. We do have agency. We're not bystanders in this world, we can shape the future, and that's what we intend to do today.

We're here because Donald Trump, on January 6, tried to light democracy on fire, tried to wreck this country, tried to steal an election, as Alex just said, by trying to dial in for 11, almost 12,000 votes.

And here we are an open and plain sight before one vote is cast in the 2026 midterm election, and here he is, once again, trying to rig the system. He doesn't play by a different set of rules. He doesn't believe in the rules.

And as a consequence, we need to disabuse ourselves of the way things have been done.

It's not good enough to just hold hands, have a candlelight vigil and talk about the way the world should be. We have got to recognize the cards that have been dealt, and we have got to meet fire with fire, and we've got to be held to a higher level accountability. So that's what this is about. It's not complicated.

We're doing this in reaction to a president of the united states that called a sitting governor of the state of Texas and said, find me five seats. We're doing it in reaction to that act.

We're doing it mindful of our higher angels and better angels. We're doing it mindful that we want to model better behavior, as we've been doing for 15 years in the State of California with our independent redistricting commission.

But we cannot unilaterally disarm. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear. We can't stand back and watch this democracy disappear, district by district, all across this country. Not just in Texas, but in Missouri, where JD Vance went just a week ago, in Indiana, in places like Ohio, in places like Florida, we need to stand up, not just California, other blue states. Need to stand up. We need to be firm and our resolve. We need to push back.

So we're here in that light, and I'm grateful to have remarkable partners in the legislature. It's a tall task. We're asking them for two thirds legislative consent, but this is the difference. This is the difference between what's happening in Texas and what's happening here in California. Receive a phone call from the president of the united states to then quietly go in the back room and start drawing maps and legislatively try to jam them through against the consent of the people.

We're doing precisely the opposite. We're working through a very transparent, temporary and public process. We're putting the maps on the ballot and we're giving the power to the people. This will be the first redistricting that’s ever done that. That's the difference.

We tried to raise the standards, and these guys are not playing by any set of rules.

So this time requires us to act anew, not just think anew. And so I'm grateful to all of the remarkable leaders that have stepped up this unifying effort here in the state of California, and we'll be asking for the people on November 4, the special election, coinciding with a lot of local municipal elections to provide a temporary pathway for congressional maps. We will affirm our commitment to the State Independent Redistricting after the 2030 census, but we're asking the voters for their consent to do midterm redistricting in 2026 2028 and 2030 for the congressional maps to respond to what's happening in Texas, to respond what Trump is trying to excite and we'll do so in a way that also affirms our desire as a state to level the playing field all across the United States.

We believe in a national Independent Redistricting framework, and we believe that's the right goal and the right thing to pursue. And I will just state for the fact Zoe Lofgren, who runs our California delegation, she authored the bill.

Democrats unanimously supported that national independent redistricting commission. Republicans were nowhere to be found.

They want to rig these elections, and they want the power that gerrymandering provides, because they know what Donald Trump knows he's going to lose the midterms. He knows, de facto his presidency ends in 17 months. But speaker Jefferson, he knows it. Why else? Why else would you try to rig the system? Why else would you make the phone call? He's a failed president who else sends ICE same time we’re having a conversation like this, someone who's weak, someone is broken, someone whose weakness is masquerading his strength, the most unpopular president in modern history, an economy that's collapsing all around him.

You saw the new wholesale prices going up almost a full percentage point today, inflation is going up, job creation is going down. He's trying to rewrite history, Smithsonian sensory and historical facts. And in the spirit of what Adam Schiff said, he's trying to put America in reverse on voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, on women's rights. He wants to bring us back to a pre 1960 1960s world. That's what this is all about. It's about power, and I want to end on this. And we are about to give power back to the people.

You have on November 4 in California, you have the power to stand up to Trump. You have the power to declare that you support a system that is not rigged. You have the power on November 4 to stand up for people that are being bullied. You have the power to stand up for people that are being intimidated the power to stand up to the rule of law.

We're giving the people of this state the power to save democracy, not just in California, but all across the United States of America. I hope we are waking up to this reality. Wake up America. Wake up to what Donald Trump is doing. Wake up to his assault. Wake up to the assault on institutions and knowledge and history. Wake up to his war on science, public health, his war against the American people.

This is a guy who lays claim to want to get a Nobel Prize, sitting there and bending his knee to Mr. Putin. You have the power to straighten this out.

And so I want again, just thank everybody for exercising not just their formal authority, yes, that's what we're doing, but also sharing their moral authority. At this moment, I want to thank everybody for being here today, for being here tomorrow, and most importantly, we're counting on all of you on November 4, for each other to win this election and stand up for our democracy.

The establishment media is criticizing Democrats who support responding to Trump’s election rigging maps with the same fire, but of course, it’s easy to criticize people trying to save a democracy when you’re making millions off of Trump’s destruction of democracy.

Gavin Newsom is not making a profit off of Donald Trump’s destruction of the United States, and neither are the voters. So maybe the profit-biased establishment media that enabled Trump 2.0 should sit this one out. They are certainly not doing their jobs of holding the powerful accountable.

Newsom is right, blue states across the country should be working on temporary redistricting maps that respond to and put down yet another attempt by Donald Trump and his Republican Party’s to rig an election. Trump is pre-rigging in front of our eyes and he’s sending JD Vance as his advance man to red states for more secret power-grabbing talks.

But this time, there are a few Democrats who aren’t sleeping on it.

Be mindful of those who want to maintain the status quo because it benefits them. The worst sins in this environment are silence and capitulation to Trump while he bullies and attacks vulnerable people.

Share your thoughts about Gov. Newsom’s speech in the comments below.