Comments made by California Gov. Gavin Newsom sparked some fiery debate by the panel of “The View.”
Newsom spoke about 2026 midterm elections being “rigged” in am interview with ABC’s Jonathan Karl, per Mediaite.
Newsom said President Donald Trump’s plan to send “election monitors” to California has him “scared to death.” He believes the election won’t be “fair and free.”
After playing a clip if the interview, the panel went full throttle.
“He’s worried,” Joy Behar said. “Are you as worried about it as he is? Or is he just going to make more Americans distrust the election process like Trump has been doing since he lost in 2020?”
Alyssa Farah Griffin, who is a former Trump staffer, spoke out against Newsom’ comments, calling them “wholly irresponsible.”
She added Newsom “oversees elections in his own state. He oversees the cybersecurity infrastructure. He oversees the secretary of state, down to poll watchers, to election workers, Gavin Newsom has a lot of power.”
“He could at minimum say, ‘California will have a free and fair election and I’ll work with every governor to make sure there’s no efforts to undermine them.’ But that’s not what he’s doing,” Griffin said.
Sunny Hostin then asked, “How does he do that when Donald Trump is sending federal monitors?”
“Because he’s the chief executive of the state. Monitors — we need to know what that means. It’s an alarming phrase,” Griffin replied.
“Doesn’t it sound like election intimidators?” Behar asked.
“It reminds me of the gerrymandering debate. Everyone is angry when Texas redraws congressional maps to add more Republican seats, ‘They’re cheating, it’s rigged,’ so, California responds by cheating and rigging by adding more Democrat seats,’” Griffin said.
“So, what are they supposed to do, just lay back —,” Behar started to say before Hostin added, “Just let them do it?”
“No!” Griffin exclaimed. “You’re supposed to safely secure your elections and tell your voters you can trust voting in California.”
Behar returned to gerrymandering, stating, “The gerrymandering! What are you supposed to do with that?”
“You should challenge it at the state level. Former governor [Arnold] Schwarzenegger talked about this. There’s a process to do it in California. There’s a process in Texas. Change the laws so that people cannot —,” Griffin said.
“You can’t change the laws when Republicans are in charge in Texas. You can’t do it!” Hostin said.
Watch:
California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta said he’ll deploy his own observers to watch over Trump’s election monitors during the upcoming elections.
