'The View' Panel Gushes Over Gov. Newsom as He Declares 'Trump Is Scared of California'

Joy Behar sounds like a woman in need of a vacation.

“I’m crazy today. I’m crazy today,” Behar said Friday in the first episode of ABC’s “The View” after President Donald Trump’s news conference celebrating his impeachment acquittal.

“He’s made me crazy this week. I mean, I’m really getting — he’s winning, because I’m getting nuttier and nuttier,” she said.

“This weekend, I’m not watching the news. I’m not going — I’m turning it off,” Behar said. “I’m going to get a massage and I’m going to — drink.”

Well, hopefully she got a good massage and liver detox cold-pressed juice over the weekend. And there’s no better chicken soup for her soul than a visit Monday with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Democrat who declared that “Trump is scared of California.”

This is odd because, as you well know, Trump doesn’t need a single vote from the Golden State. The last time the state went red, it was 1988 and Michael Dukakis was riding atop a tank that was going over an electoral cliff. It’s safe to say that if the president makes a stop there during the 2020 campaign, it’s because he wants some In-N-Out burgers.

During Newsom’s appearance on “The View,” however, Behar spotlighted lines from Trump’s State of the Union speech in which he seemed obsessed with California — and yet were totally denuded of context.

“In California and other states, their systems are totally out of control, costing taxpayers vast and unaffordable amounts of money,” Trump said in one.

“The state of California passed an outrageous law declaring their whole state to be a sanctuary for criminal illegal immigrants — a very terrible sanctuary, with catastrophic results,” he said in another.

In the first quote, the president was talking about an effort to provide free health care to illegal immigrants, just to provide a bit of context. In the second case, he went on to provide some of those results — but never mind all that noise.

After some laughs over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s face on the last Trump statement, Behar had a deep, probing question: “Does he hate California because he knows that you’re there, and Nancy is there and [House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam] Schiff? All his enemies are there?”

It went deeper than that, Newsom said, even though he made sure to note that Trump “lost by four-plus million votes” there. (Yes, and that and $11 will get you into that new Harley Quinn movie.)

“We are the most un-Trump state in America. We’re also the most diverse state in America. … We’re also prospering across every conceivable difference,” he said.

Here’s the clip, which includes gratuitous gushing sycophancy:

What is “prospering across every conceivable difference?” Well, no matter. Co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, saying, “He can’t stand it. Diversity is working for California.”

Just ask the state’s 151,000 homeless people. In Los Angeles alone, according to NBC News, there are 36,000 homeless people, a number that’s grown 16 percent from 2018 until now. But I digress, since I suppose they’re all prospering across every conceivable difference or what-have-you.

He was indeed Behar’s chicken soup for the soul, with her declaring him “America’s coming attraction.”

“Trump is scared of California,” Newsom said.

Sure. So, um, could standing up to Trump have repercussions? “I’m not going to turn into Lindsey Graham. I’m going to fight on principle,” Newsom said, referencing the South Carolina Republican senator and Trump ally who was once a critic.

“We’re gonna stand up to a bully. We’re not going to capitulate.”

Also on the South Carolina senator: “He’s an embarrassment,” Newsom said. “He really is. [Senate Majority Leader] Mitch McConnell is dangerous, not just an embarrassment.”

The View

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California Gov. @GavinNewsom explains why he has “no interest” in running for president or vice president: “I love my job. I really do love my job... Only one year and we’re doing some pretty extraordinary things.” https://abcn.ws/31HDv8p 

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What about vice presidential talk?

“I have no interest in that. I love my job. I really do love my job. I’ve been there only one year and we’re doing some pretty extraordinary things,” Newsom said.

We’ll probably never have to find that out thanks to the fact he presents some very 2020 problems for Democrats: No one needs a white guy who’s from a state the Democrats are already winning and who has some pretty iffy #MeToo baggage involving an affair with a subordinate who had a substance abuse problem during his time as mayor of San Francisco. (That didn’t come up in the interview, for whatever reason.)

Happily, though, Joy Behar looks to be less nutty. She’s had her massage and her drink and all is well with the world. Short of an episode where Behar does nothing but scream at a hog-tied-and-gagged Lindsey Graham for an entire hour, this couldn’t have been any better therapy.

As for asking Newsom about the fact he presides over a state with a mass demographic exodus where rent is unaffordable, new housing stock can’t be built and he’s asking his own legislature for $1.4 billion to fight a homelessness crisis, that could apparently wait for another episode.

I’m sure when Newsom comes back, no doubt, they’ll talk about things other than how “diversity is working for California” and instead discuss how Newsom is trying to make California work.

Until then, can’t you just be happy for Joy Behar? Can’t you just pretend Donald Trump is scared of California?