California Governor Gavin Newsom refused to take anti-Trump bait on Friday when Joy Behar of “The View” forwarded a “kiss the ring” narrative on receiving coronavirus relief.
The Democrat took the high road regarding President Trump and assured ABC’s viewers that his relationship with the president — while rocky on various issues — was “strong” when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s no secret that you have had a combative relationship with Trump in the past, but lately you have been praising him for the help he’s giving,” Ms. Behar said. “Or, of course, you have to because look how he treats governors who don’t, you know, kiss his ring. The governor of Washington, the governor of Michigan, he said they were not appreciative and told Mike Pence don’t call them back. You know, do you feel like you have to feed this guy’s ego to get the respirators and to get the PPEs? Is that what’s going on?”
Mr. Newsom wasted no time rejecting the comedian’s premise.
“We’re involved in over 68 lawsuits with the Trump administration,” he replied. “There’s no question we have had our differences of opinion on many issues but I just want to remind you that you and many others that maybe are not aware of this. We have been at this since late January. California got a head start in many respects where no one was really paying much attention. We started working with the administration directly to get these repatriated flights from mainland China into the state of California.”
The Democrat then noted that Trump administration officials have been working with California well before coronavirus monopolized national news cycles.
“Our relationship began earlier than most, and so from that perspective, all I can say is from my perspective, the relationship has been strong and I’m not doing it to kiss the ring,” Mr. Newsom said. “I’m not doing it in a way, you know — I’m just being forthright with the president. He returns calls. He reaches out. He’s been proactive.”
“We got that ’Mercy’ ship down here in Los Angeles,” he continued. “That was directly because he sent it down here. 2,000 medical units came to the state of California, these fms, these field medical stations, and that’s been very, very helpful.”
Mr. Newsom said that he would say something if the relationship with Mr. Trump changed.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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