During an interview with CNN during their coverage of Wednesday’s Republican presidential primary debate, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) stated that President Joe Biden’s economic record is sound, but people don’t feel that because Democrats are “just prone to distraction when we’ve got a record of accomplishments.”

Newsom began by saying, “I think DeSantis has a lot to answer to…because he flat-out lied about his executive order. He lied about hydraulic fracking, which he did an executive order — I’m Governor, I know what an executive order is and what it isn’t — he did an executive order opposing offshore oil, as he’s attacking the Biden administration for not doing more drilling. So, hypocrisy and a lie and caught red-handed by Haley.” And that taking military action in Mexico would hurt energy trade with the nation and increase prices.

Later, he added, “[W]e’re more energy-independent than we’ve ever been in our history, under the Biden administration, currently, by a margin of 5.94 quads. It’s the highest margin in history. We have the lowest unemployment rate in my lifetime. We have the lowest unemployment rate for women and for blacks and Hispanics. We have the lowest poverty rate for African Americans in our history. We have the lowest…rate of uninsured in our nation’s history.”

CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash then cut in to ask, “Why aren’t people out there feeling the statistics that you’re citing?”

Newsom answered, “Because we don’t talk about it. We don’t communicate it. We tend to play in this frame. We’re talking about DEI, CRT, anything with three letters, DOJ, FBI. We’re just prone to distraction when we’ve got a record of accomplishments.”

Bash then cut in to ask, “[Y]ou say, ‘we,’ who’s we? Democrats?”

Newsom responded, “All of us are distracted. And we need to be more forceful. 13.5 million jobs, almost seven times more than the last three Republican presidents combined, Joe Biden administration, 47 million jobs created since Ronald Reagan left office in 1989 — 47 out of 49 million done by Democratic administrations. That’s 96%. This jobs debate is not even interesting. The only thing that’s interesting is the last three Republican presidents have one thing in common, recessions. We dominate on the facts, but not the narrative. And we’ve got to shape-shift that narrative and we’ve got to be more forceful. That’s why I’m here at the Reagan Library.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett