Joe Rogan confronts Gavin Newsom with 'tough' questions on pandemic record

Fox News

16-07-2025

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was pressed to defend his COVID-19 record by podcast giant Joe Rogan on Monday.
The Democratic leader, and likely 2028 presidential candidate, appeared on former U.S. Navy SEAL Shawn Ryan's podcast for a wide-ranging interview about problems facing California as well as Newsom's personal life and political career.
During the interview, Ryan asked Newsom to respond to a question sent in to him by his friend and fellow podcaster.
"Motherf-----r," Newsom exclaimed before saying he was a fan of Rogan, who has been critical of the Democrat.
Ryan warned Newsom it was a "tough" question before reading it aloud: "Who will be held accountable for mandating COVID-19 vaccines for children, which were unnecessary and ineffective, and who will take responsibility for the unprecedented increases in myocarditis and cancer cases among them?"
"Second to that, do you feel any remorse for that draconian decision that was obviously heavily influenced by the pharmaceutical companies' desire for maximum profit?"
Newsom denied that he caved to the pharmaceutical industry, saying he's passed "some of the most progressive laws" against Big Pharma in the nation.
He also defended his record on the pandemic, arguing California worked closely with the Trump administration and moved aggressively to mitigate damage from the virus, "like many states, red states included."
"I mean, Florida shut down their bars and restaurants before California. The question was, when did we start to unwind some of those restrictions? California was more restrictive and we were certainly aggressive at scale," he said.
The governor claimed his team was compiling an "objective review" of the good and bad outcomes of these policies and comparing them to what other states did.
Regarding vaccines, Newsom declared they "save lives" but that he respected Rogan's question. He explained that he received "a lot of feedback" from independent advisors regarding their safety.
"I took their advice, not as a doctor, but as a governor. So, with humility —seriously —humility and grace, I've asked them to have that report done. It's going to be done next month. And it'll be the only state that I know of that is putting out a truly objective review of what went right and what went wrong," he added.
"I know everyone's a Godd--- genius now in hindsight," Newsom declared. "But at the time, none of us knew what we were up against, including the President of the United States, who I worked very closely with."
Newsom appeared to shift some of the scrutiny of his leadership onto President Donald Trump, claiming he worked closer with Trump than any other Democratic governor during the pandemic.
"And I say that with the kind of humility he deserves as well —grace that he deserves in terms of the decisions he made early on. We were all up against something none of us had any experience on," he said.
When asked if he had made any mistakes during the pandemic, Newsom named the closures of outdoor spaces like beaches as something he would've done differently.
The governor went on to argue that California had unfairly become a symbol of failed pandemic policies when states like Florida had taken similar actions during the pandemic early on.
"We weren't the only state doing it, but the state of mind of the 'California Derangement Syndrome.' There's a 'Trump Derangement Syndrome,' no question. But there's also 'California Derangement Syndrome.' As if California stands unique in some of these interventions and respects. It's true in some but not all," he said.