Newsom: ‘Nothing Surprising’ about San Francisco Recall Results, But ‘Be Cautious’ about ‘Overreading’ Results

During a portion of an interview with MSNBC released on Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) stated that the San Francisco school board recall results weren’t a surprise because the recalled board members weren’t focused on what they needed to be, but that “we can overread this from a national prism.” And “one should be cautious, in terms of overreading.”

Newsom said, “Nothing surprising about it. I mean, in every way, shape, or form, that could have happened 20 years ago for the same reasons. They weren’t focused on what they should have been focused on. It wasn’t just naming — changing names of schools, including Dianne Feinstein. But it was also focusing on murals at a time when everybody was focused on their kids and getting them safely back in in-person instruction. So, there was tone-deafness at the time, and they doubled down on it. And then, there was a component that’s not been well-shared. One member of the school board said some insensitive things, that were particularly insensitive against the Asian community. And I’ll just tell you, as a former mayor, who was elected, disproportionately, because of the support of the Asian community, that was the end of their time — tenure on that school board. I think we can overread this from a national prism. It’s a very familiar San Francisco story, west side, east side, very familiar tenants, that I think one should be cautious, in terms of overreading.”

He also stated, “[A]t the end of the day, if you are focused more on renaming things than focusing on fundamentally getting to the nuts and bolts of the job that you were hired to do, that’s a problem in any time or in anyone’s experience. And so, that, at the moment, obviously, gins up a lot of anxiety.”

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