Victor Davis Hanson: The Money-Funneling Scandal Wrecking Newsom’s Plans for President

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
Welcome to The Daily Signal Podcast, where we provide intelligence for the intelligent. Now, without further ado, here's today's take. Choice Hotels gets you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember.
Texas, Ohio, Alaska, we're up there too.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:33)
Well, I hope you like my little song. Book direct at choicehotels.com.
Here's a question. As we approach our 250th, is it possible for us to turn around our education to restore civic leadership and enjoy summer vacation with our family all at the same time? Well, Mount Titano Media says yes. This is the book for our 250th and for all ages, Finding Our Words, Words That Made America. This collection of the greatest speeches delivered in American history, many almost entirely forgotten, displays those very words that defined and can still drive the American mission. And now you can take them anywhere this summer with the Audible edition. These words that moved the world are read by Michael Knowles, Andrew Claven, Spencer Claven, Bill Whittle, US. Army generals and leaders in classical education. Every speech includes a powerful introductory essay written by acclaimed scholar Tracy Lee Simmons, whose preludes set the stage for a deeper understanding of each work. Mount Titano Media publishes single works and compilations of the greatest works of Western civilization for education at all levels and for independent lovers of learning and culture. Finding Our Words, Words That Made America, a great book for our 250th and always, is available now in paperback, hardcover, Kindle, Audible and even in Spanish. Get your copies at Amazon and on the Mount Titano Media website. That's Mount Titano, T-I-T-A-N-O, mounttitanomedia.com.
Visit www.mounttitanomedia.com.

**Victor Davis Hanson** (2:29)
Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal. We've talked a lot about Gavin Newsom and California in particular. Apparently, Gavin Newsom will be running for president in 2020 I don't know whether his slogan will be, I will remake the United States in the way that I remade California. Let's hope not. But he's now suffering some scandal allegations, and it's intrinsic or it's no accident given California is a one-party state. I mean that literally. Seven of 52 congressional seats are Republican, 13 percent.
Both houses of the legislature, assembly and senate have super democratic majorities. There has not been a statewide Republican for well over a decade. We have not had a Republican governor in 15 years. The vast majority of superior appellate and Supreme Court appointees are now left-wing. Maybe even Democrat is an unfair characterization. They're very hard left. The point I'm making is there is no deterrence for illegal behavior in California given the mass exit and odyssey of conservatives out of state, perhaps 10 or 12 million in total on the last few years. So the population is increasingly left-wing and it's reflected in its politics.
Gavin Newsom had a problem. Dana Williamson was his chief of staff for years. She was just been convicted of mail and bank fraud. She was using campaign monies when she used to work for the, ironically, the would-be replacement of Gavin Newsom. Javier Becerra is running against Steve Hilton, the Republican for the Governorship of California, and she was draining his campaign fund for personal use. Apparently, he is pleading that he didn't have any idea this was going on. You can believe that if you would like. In any case, the legislature is all right, left-wing. The government is all left-wing. So you have a uniparty and there's no oppositional press, there's no oppositional money. Silicon Valley, $14 trillion, market capitalization, all left-wing Los Angeles Times such as it is, San Francisco Chronicle, left-wing, etc., etc., etc. The latest accusation though is really disturbing.
In the last 10 or 15 years, the state of California has given $600 million plus to so-called nonprofit charities. If you examine these charities, they're almost exclusively left-wing and reflect the political makeup of the California legislature and the recent governors. How it works is simply they pick out certain environmental, ethnic, political activist groups, and then they use our state money and endow them. Then those groups further the democratic left-wing control of the state by doing things like suing Republican developers, or stopping the oil industry, or trying to get subsidies for their particular favorite solar panel, or wind project. Then, of course, they give money back to legislatures and the governor. In Gavin Newsom's case, the particular charge is he's directly responsible for routing over $350 million in our taxpayer money to his favorite charities, which would be bad enough because some of those charities have donated back to him. But his wife is associated with two charities, one of which she gets a salary of $150,000 plus a year, and some of the charities that he has routed money has routed money back to her. And then in another case, a charity that she had has been the beneficiary of $4 million.