California Governor Gavin Newsom is talking exclusively — and first— with KNX News about the current effort to remove him from office.
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During a conversation with KNX News' Craig Fiegener, Newsom had some words for the people going against him.
He said these are, "The same folks that want to roll back most of the progress the last half century on voting rights, civil rights, LGBTQ rights, and women's rights. I mean, look at the folks behind this," said Newsom.
The group is Rescue California, and they are the same people who led a previous failed attempt to recall the governor.
The group is highly critical of Governor Newsom, saying he's spending way too much time outside of California not being a leader for the state and spending too much time as a surrogate for President Biden. They are especially critical of the looming potential $80 billion California state budget deficit.
Hear from the group's leader:
Newsom said, "It's just unsurprising, considering with respect to the dark forces, they are trying to take the values of this state and the progress of the state and roll it back in their argument supporting the recall."
Though he is not surprised by the effort, Newsom said he will not be taking the attempt lightly.
"You got to take it seriously because we are on the lowest thresholds in America to get these things on the ballot. They've got all the old lists and don't take much in resources to put this back on, and then the taxpayers are going to be out hundreds of millions of dollars, so we're organizing very deliberately," said Newsom.
Rescue California is currently gathering signatures to bring a recall to voters; they'll need more than 1.3 million valid signatures to succeed.
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