Charlie Kirk Praises Gavin Newsom’s ‘Charisma,’ Says He Wants to Be President ‘More Than Any Living Person’

Screenshot via This Is Gavin Newsom

Charlie Kirk has warned the GOP needs to “beware” after he was the first conservative guest on California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) new podcast.

“The governor isn’t a joke. He has a shark’s instincts and is hoping that voters will have a goldfish’s memory,” Kirk wrote in an op-ed for Fox News about his experience speaking with the governor.

Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, spoke with Newsom on a variety of topics. Newsom at one point asked Kirk to give the Democratic Party advice, noting the conservative activist’s own success in recruiting young people to the right. Newsom also at one point broke with some Democrats, calling transgender athletes competing in women’s sports “unfair.”

Kirk called Newsom “charming” and “savvy” when it comes to politics, always ready to “pivot.” Kirk argued Newsom’s podcast, which has included him talking to right-wing figures like Steve Bannon, is all part of a rebrand for the governor and his record.

Kirk wrote:

Newsom is similarly savvy with politics. In 2004, when he was mayor of San Francisco, he became nationally famous by ordering city clerks to give marriage licenses to same-sex couples. At the time, he was violating California state law and going against a large majority of Americans. But Newsom anticipated what was coming. Within just a few years, Democrats would overwhelmingly support same-sex marriage and now Newsom had credibility for being ahead of the curve.

Newsom, Kirk theorized, wants to be president more than any other person alive — and possibly dead too.

“Newsom is charming and friendly in-person. You don’t become governor of 40 million people without having some charisma. But there’s clearly a layer beneath the charm. I saw that Newsom wants to be president more than any living person (and possibly every dead person, too),” Kirk wrote.

The conservative activist argued future conservative guests should hold Newsom’s feet to the fire and stick to his record as California governor.

“He knows his current record can’t win him the White House, and so he’s trying to rewrite what that record is,” he wrote. “The conservatives he speaks with in the weeks to come shouldn’t let him.”