Source: Politics<\/p>\n
SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 Gavin Newsom didn\u2019t just roll out the welcome mat for Joe Biden when the president landed in San Francisco this week for public events and fundraisers.<\/p>\n
During Biden\u2019s three-day swing through the Bay Area, the California governor forcefully embraced his new role: a top Biden surrogate. The trip came days after Newsom took that defense directly into what many Democrats consider the beating heart of enemy territory \u2014 over an hourlong interview with Fox News\u2019 Sean Hannity.<\/p>\n
The Biden world is taking notice. It wasn\u2019t that long ago when Newsom annoyed Democratic leaders by failing to sufficiently tamp down speculation that he planned to challenge Biden for the 2024 nomination. Then, Newsom frustrated them anew by suggesting they weren\u2019t prepared to take on escalating Republican attacks on issues Democrats hold dear, including abortion rights.<\/p>\n
Now, he\u2019s doing the attacking on Biden\u2019s behalf.<\/p>\n
Campaigns want surrogates \u201cto be doing both supportive, affirmative messages around the record and agenda. You also want them to take the fight to the other party,\u201d said a Biden adviser of their emerging stable of influential surrogates, speaking freely on the condition of anonymity. On Newsom directly, the adviser said: \u201cOur view is he\u2019s been doing a good job on both.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s customary for governors to line up behind their party\u2019s president, Newsom has gone to even greater lengths in recent months to demonstrate his fealty and offer up his services to help for 2024.<\/p>\n
The California governor hopscotched the Bay Area for nearly 36 hours this week to greet Biden at the airport, speak about the administration\u2019s climate policy at a Palo Alto nature preserve, chat artificial intelligence in San Francisco and co-headline a reelection fundraiser for the president across the Golden Gate in the deep-pocketed woodlands of Marin County.<\/p>\n
Appearing before more than 100 donors gathered Tuesday afternoon in Kentfield, Newsom piled on praise, calling Biden a \u201cremarkable leader\u201d who needs another four-year term.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am here, Mr. President, as a proud American, as a proud California, mesmerized by not just your faith and devotion to this country, and the world we’re trying to build, but by your results, by your action, by your passion, by your capacity to deliver,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Biden traded compliments with him from behind the microphone at the AI event, calling Newsom his \u201cbuddy\u201d and \u201cone of the best governors I\u2019ve ever worked with.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the trip wrapped Wednesday, Biden advisers and several aides felt that Newsom and Biden lifted each other up during the visit. And officials back in Washington were commenting to each other about how well things had gone with Newsom, according to people with knowledge of the conversations.<\/p>\n
According to aides and close allies, Newsom has coordinated with Biden\u2019s team on everything from his own PAC to national travel to even his major interviews \u2014 all with the idea of ensuring he doesn\u2019t fall out of step with the party\u2019s leader. Newsom has long personally maintained a strong relationship with Biden himself, but he previously rubbed some presidential aides and allies the wrong way by calling out the Democratic Party as sluggish in the face of the concerted GOP attacks. Lately, he checks in regularly with Biden\u2019s close-knit circle of top advisers and last year bonded over family and education policy with first lady Jill Biden on a trip to Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cGov. Newsom loves that man \u2014 loves him,\u201d said Anthony York, a Newsom senior adviser.<\/p>\n
Newsom sees a role for himself in elevating Biden\u2019s sweeping policy wins, such as the infrastructure, veterans’ health care and computer chips legislation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has a deep respect for him and really does believe that the things he has accomplished \u2014 from the IRA to the [infrastructure bill] \u2014 are transformational pieces of legislation that will reshape our country for the next 50 years,\u201d York said.<\/p>\n
The Biden world, in turn, has come to view the swaggering 55-year-old as an important ally, a younger official comfortable in the ways of modern verbal combat and unafraid to go on offense against the president\u2019s biggest detractors. Pointing to Newsom\u2019s haymakers at former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the leading Republican candidates for 2024, the Biden adviser added: \u201cThat is being a good surrogate. And appreciated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), who appeared at events this week with Biden and Newsom, said dealing with California\u2019s recent spate of disasters, including historic drought and wildfires, helped the pair forge a tighter relationship. \u201cSteel comes through a great deal of stress,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s too early to know how Newsom might be deployed in the campaign. He\u2019s used his own list of supporters to raise money online and stand up events. He traveled to Washington for Biden\u2019s finance kickoff with national co-chair Jeffrey Katzenberg, telling aides he felt it was important to be there in person as an added demonstration of his support.<\/p>\n
Newsom helped raise about $2 million at the event Tuesday in Kentfield. His running tally of online fundraising for Biden is approaching $500,000, an aide said.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t always so copacetic between the two camps. In addition to earlier whispers about his presidential ambitions, Newsom\u2019s broadsides against the party fueled critiques he wasn\u2019t a team player.<\/p>\n
Last year, some White House officials and Biden allies were openly annoyed when Newsom went out after the Supreme Court\u2019s Dobbs decision on abortion got leaked and asked, \u201cWhere the hell\u2019s my party?\u201d The critiques arrived at a vulnerable time for Biden, who was facing persistent questions about his age, confronting what was expected to be a brutal 2022 midterms and suffering from soft polling.<\/p>\n
Officials from the White House, DNC and<\/a> even then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi<\/a>, who is close with Newsom, took his words personally. Some accused him of grandstanding at their expense. The tension was more acute given Biden\u2019s stumping for Newsom during the attempted recall of the governor.<\/p>\n