Gavin Newsom Calls California Homeless Issue a ‘Disgrace’ After Being Confronted by Hannity: ‘I Take Responsibility For This’

Fox News host Sean Hannity confronted California Governor Gavin Newsom over his state’s homeless population on Monday, which prompted Newsom to concede that the situation was “a disgrace” and that the state had “not made progress in the last two decades.”

“You have stores now in San Francisco; because of smash-and-grab robberies, they’re leaving,” said Hannity in reference to the closure of Whole Foods, Walgreens, and other stores. “So my question to you is between taxes, bureaucracy, crime, homelessness— and the homeless numbers are not really good…”

Newsom interrupted, “No. I acknowledge that,” before adding, “I wouldn’t compare ourselves to anyone. It’s a disgrace, the homeless issue out here. A disgrace.”

The governor then conceded that “the state has not made progress in the last two decades as relates to homelessness,” prompting Hannity to question, “Why?”

“Because housing costs are too high, our regulatory thickets are too problematic, localism has been too impactful, meaning people locally are pushing back against new housing starts and construction,” Newsom argued. “I’ve been here four years; I can’t make up for the fact in 2005 we had an historic number of homeless under a Republican administration.”

After Hannity pointed out that California’s homeless population was far higher than Florida’s, Newsom said, “Of course… Dynamics are very different. That said, we own this, Sean. I’m not here defending this.” However, the governor went on to list the measures he had taken to address the issue:

I just got 68,000 people off the streets last year, and by the way that’s been PolitiFact’d. 68,000. I have a $15.3 billion homeless plan. When I got here, it was half a billion dollars. The state of California was not involved in the homeless issue. We got involved. We’re holding cities and counties accountable. I’m suing cities that are not producing housing. We actually have a 15-year high in new housing starts in the state of California. We’re actually seeing programs produce real results, but I want accountability. I’m not the mayor of California. I’m governor of the state larger than 21 states’ populations combined, and the difference between me and most politicians is I own this. I take responsibility for this. This is personal to me. I love this state. I don’t like what’s happening with encampments, I don’t like what’s happening to streets and sidewalks. I don’t like the bashing of my old city San Francisco. Whole Foods did shut down one business, but that was a bad location to begin with. They’re opening a new one.

During the interview, Hannity and Newsom also got into a heated debate over California’s declining population and the administration of President Joe Biden, which resulted in Hannity making Newsom watch a compilation of Biden’s “embarrassing struggles.”

Watch above via Fox News.