California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) declared climate change the “exti-stential issue of our time,” inventing a new word on the debate stage as he faced State Sen. Brian Dahle (R-Bieber) in a gubernatorial debate on Sunday night.
Newsom, who is seeking reelection to his second four-year term, used the word in a deliberate and emphatic manner during a lengthy response, suggesting he believed it was a real word. The correct term is “existential,” referring to human existence.
The governor attempted to portray his environmental policies as intellectually superior to those of his opponent, whom he accused of “doubling down on stupid” by supporting oil and gas development.
Dahle countered that it was Newsom who was “doubling down on stupid” by supporting radial policies that did not work, such as mandating the purchase of electric vehicles by 2035, and then telling drivers not to charge their electric vehicles during statewide electricity shortages.
“The policies that this governor put forth don’t work in California,” Dahle said. “I know the governor talks about all this national stuff, he wants to talk about a president [Trump] that’s not even in office, he wants to talk about our party. He wasn’t to talk about everything but the facts of what I see and hear every day on the street. California is suffering because of your policies.”
Newsom has talked about overcoming struggles with dyslexia as a child, and succeeding despite his learning disability.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.