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5 Takeaways From Gavin Newsom’s ‘Real Time’ Interview

By Dieter Holger
Published on: 23:08 PST, Nov 20, 2015

This Friday, California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom joined Bill Maher on Real Time for the opening interview of the satirical political talk show. In February, Newsom announced he was running in the 2018 California governor election and he’s already leading in the polls. So, what did the potentially next governor of California share with Maher?

He welcomes Syrian refugees into California

When Maher asked Newsom his position on the refugees, Newsom said California wouldn’t turn them away.

California already shelters 252 Syrian refugees and will continue accepting any that complete the federal vetting process, Newsom said.

“One thing we’re not going to do is play the politics of fear,” Newsom told Maher. “We are not going to turn our backs on people who have been persecuted, turn our backs on people who have been threatened by terror. We are not going to play the sort of xenophobic game of trying to one-up Republican governors.”

Unlike 31 other governors, California Gov. Jerry Brown said he will not try to refuse refugees. Brown’s office told ABC7 he plans to work with the Obama administration to bring in refugees that are “fully vetted” by the feds. A refugee’s vetting process lasts 18 to 24 months on average, White House officials told NPR.

He thinks the National Rifles Association (NRA) is helping terrorists buy weapons

Newsom told Maher that the NRA is “promoting guns for terrorists” by not allowing lawmakers to close a loophole.

“[The NRA] believes that everyone deserves a gun, including terrorists,” Newsom said. “From 2007 in this country we’ve been trying to close a loophole that deny people on the no-fly [list] in the U.S. – those are the people who can’t get on airplanes – they’re still allowed to buy assault weapons legally in this country.”

He thinks Donald Trump’s comment about the Paris attacks is wrong

When Maher remarked on Donald Trump’s statement that the Paris massacre would be “much different” if the victims had guns, Newsom called Trump’s idea a “fantasy.”

“This sort of mythology of the guy with the gun who’s going to come save the day – right out of the movies – this sort of gun-slinging fantasy,” Newsom said. “The reality is, [more guns are] most likely to create more harm, more damage, more lost lives in those circumstances.”

Presently, California has banned concealed handguns, limited the capacity of magazines in firearms and requires background checks to buy guns. The state is the strictest in the U.S. when it comes to gun laws, according to the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

He’s for marijuana legalization

Marijuana legalization, for people 21 and up, will appear on the 2016 ballot during a time when a record-high 54 percent of Californians want to legalize cannabis, according to a poll taken by the Public Policy Institute of California in June.

Although California’s current governor is against marijuana legalization, Maher noted Newsom has come out in support of cannabis legalization.

“It’s long overdue to tax and regulate for adult use [marijuana],” Newsom said.

Maher jokingly asked why he wasn’t on the state’s commission on marijuana legalization that Newsom chaired for two years.

“Because we knew your position well in advance,” Newsom answered.

Proposition 19, a 2010 California ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in California, was defeated by nearly 54 percent of the vote. But Newsom told Maher he thinks California will succeed in legalizing marijuana this time around.

He wants to end the visa waiver program

Newsom said a terrorist could easily enter the country through the 90 day visa waiver program the U.S. has with many European nations. Despite being of Muslim descent, some of the terrorists implicated in the Paris attacks were European citizens.

“We have a visa waiver program in this country that 20 million people take advantage of,” Newsom said. “The terrorists in France and Belgium were citizens of France and Belgium – and they could come over.”

Newsom isn’t the only elected official concerned with the visa waiver system. In Washington, lawmakers are supporting a bill by California Sen. Diane Feinstein that ends the program.

Watch a shortened version of the interview below, courtesy of HBO.

[Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images]

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