Newsom Accuses Republicans of Everything from ‘Promoting Victimhood’ to Kidnapping Migrants to Attacking Mickey Mouse at Inauguration

California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) used his second inauguration address to contrast himself with the GOP, a move likely to only fuel the governor’s image as a potential future presidential frontrunner for his party.

On Thursday, Newsom spoke bluntly about his Republican colleagues without naming names. His inauguration occurred on the second anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot.

In his remarks, Newsom accused Republicans of promoting “victimhood,” kidnapping migrants, and even attacking Mickey Mouse, a not-so-subtle reference to the feud between Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), also considered by many to be a 2024 frontrunner.

“They’re promoting grievance and victimhood, in an attempt to erase so much of the progress you and I have witnessed in our lifetime,” Newsome said this week. “They make it harder to vote and easier to buy illegal guns. They silence speech, fire teachers, kidnap migrants, subjugate women, attack the Special Olympics, and even demonize Mickey Mouse.”

Though he didn’t name names, Newsom did refer to “red states” selling “regression as progress.”

He also worked the events of January 6 into his contrast with Republicans.

“On January 6, two years ago, we saw dark forces in America that wanted to take the nation backward. That day was decades in the making. The GOP and the media empire behind them have been selling regression as progress and oppression as freedom. We will not stand for it,” Newsom tweeted when sharing bits of his speech.

Newsom also painted a rosy picture of California, calling the blue state a “freedom force multiplier.”

“California has been freedom’s force multiplier, protecting liberty from a rising tide of oppression taking root in statehouses — weakness, masquerading as strength,” he said, according to footage captured by KCRA.

Watch above via KCRA