CNN proved Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrong Thursday night on his recent claim that neither he or his office used the term “Latinx.”
Newsom told Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk on his podcast that he had never used the far-left term to describe the Latino community, though footage and past social media posts show otherwise. CNN’s Erin Burnett and KFile senior editor Andrew Kaczynski pointed out that the California governor is suddenly walking back his past political stances to appear more politically moderate.
“But there was a person who used Latinx, it was actually a very important person. It was him,” Burnett said after airing the clip.
“Yeah, that’s right and look, these aren’t minor shifts. These are progressive issues that Gavin Newsom used to champion until fairly recently and now he’s not just walking away from then, he’s sort of acting like they were never legitimate with that clip taking about Latinx in the first place,” Kaczynski said.
The segment aired several clips of Newsom using the term “Latinx” as recently as January 2023, when he criticized Republican politicians for attempting to ban the term instead of “assault rifles.”
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During the COVID-19 pandemic, the governor used the word several times during press briefings. The governor used the terms again during briefings held on July 22, 2020, Aug. 3, 2020, and Aug. 10, 2020, where he discussed the impact of COVID on Hispanic communities.
“If you look at a few of these [posts] right here, you see there, that is a lot of use of Latinx by him for somebody who said that nobody in his office has ever used that phrase,” Kaczynski continued.
Newsom wrote on X in July 2020 that the virus “disproportionately impacts the Latinx community,” stating that his administration made $52 million available to “increase testing and contact tracing.” He also wrote in an April 2019 post on X that 31% of “Latinx” children lived in poverty.
When he spoke with Hispanic activist and singer Becky G, his official X account stated that he “teamed up with [a] global Latinx superstar” to urge members of her community to vote in an Oct. 28, 2020, post.
The term is widely unpopular among Latinos who have heard it used, with 75% saying it should not be said to describe Hispanic or Latino people, according to a Pew Research poll from Sept. 12, 2024. The survey also found that 36% of those who had heard of the term believe it is a “bad thing” that it used, while 12% said it is a “good thing.”
Newsom also appeared to walk back his previous support for trans-identifying men competing in women’s sports during his podcast episode with Kirk, where he said that allowing men to compete in women’s sports is unfair. However, the California governor supported and signed several pro-transgender pieces of legislation into law, including one 2024 bill allowing for men to compete in women’s sports and use opposite-sex facilities in schools.
Newsom’s press office did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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