John Fetterman has accused Gavin Newsom of running a rival presidential campaign against Joe Biden – but not having “the guts to announce it.”
Fetterman, the outspoken Pennsylvania senator, said the California governor was secretly trying to oust Biden in the Democratic primaries.
Fetterman told a meeting of Iowa Democrats in Altoona on Saturday evening that they should rally around Biden for 2024.
“There are two more Democrats running for Pennsylvania, excuse me, who are currently running for president,” said Fetterman, who continues to suffer from speech problems after suffering a stroke in 2022.
“One is a congressman from Minnesota, the other is the governor of California.
“But only one has the courage to announce it,” Fetterman said.
Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is seen in Iowa on Saturday evening
California Governor Gavin Newsom has insisted he will not run for office in 2024. Biden’s only Democratic challenger is little-known Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips.
Dean Phillips, 54, was elected to represent Minnesota in 2018 and announced in late October that he was running for president against Biden, citing his belief that the commander in chief cannot win reelection.
Few have heard of Phillips, and his long shot has gained little traction.
However, Newsom has impressed as a surrogate for Biden at the debates and recently visited Israel and China, where he received an audience with Xi Jinping.
Newsom has strongly denied any intentions to run against Biden, but Fetterman is not the only political figure to mention Newsom’s ambition.
Vivek Ramaswamy, a Republican primary challenger, said in Iowa City last month: “The man is running for president, he’s doing it and he’s doing it in disguise, and he’s doing it with a record of success in a state that is changing by the day.” becomes more disastrous.’
Fetterman urged Iowans on Saturday evening to rally behind Biden.
“If you’re a Democrat who wants to criticize and go after Joe Biden, our president, just write a check to Trump,” Fetterman said.
He said he met Biden when the president campaigned with him in Pennsylvania.
“He’s a strong, decent, dedicated guy,” Fetterman said to applause. ‘He’s your president! He’s my president! He’s our man!’
Newsom, asked in September whether he was considering a 2024 run, told CNN: “The answer is no. No ambiguity.’
Newsom, 56, is widely expected to run in 2028.
Newsom’s PAC has donated to a mayoral candidate in Charleston, South Carolina – a state that was crucial to Joe Biden’s primary victory
“Divorce is not an option,” tweeted Gavin Newsom’s official account as California’s governor roamed China. Newsom is seen with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on October 25
In October 2022, Newsom pledged to delay his final four-year term as governor if re-elected. He then sailed to a second and final term the following month.
Fetterman’s accusation against Newsom came as a devastating new poll showed Biden trailing Republican front-runner Donald Trump in five of the six key battleground states.
The poll, exactly a year before the US elections, showed Americans expressing doubts about Biden’s age and dissatisfaction with his handling of the economy.
However, additional findings from the New York Times and Siena College polls released Monday showed that if Trump were convicted in criminal charges against him, some of his support in some swing states would erode by about 6 percent — “enough, potentially ‘. , to decide the elections.’
Trump, his party’s frontrunner for the 2024 nomination as he tries to reclaim the presidency, is leading in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania, with Biden ahead in Wisconsin, results showed on Sunday.
Biden defeated Trump in all six states in 2020, but Trump now leads by an average of 48 to 44 percent in those states, the polls showed.
While national popular vote polls consistently show Biden and Trump in a close race, presidential elections are typically decided by swing states.
Biden’s victories in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – all swing states that Trump won in 2016 – played a major role in his 2020 victory.
Biden would likely have to carry many of those states again to win reelection.
President Joe Biden has poor marks on the economy and has seen a drop in support among Black and Hispanic voters in a new New York Times/Siena poll, amid continued voter concerns about the age of 80- year-old president.
Biden’s team tried to brush off the findings on Sunday.
‘Forecasts made more than a year often look slightly different a year later. Don’t take our word for it: Gallup predicted an 8-point loss for President Obama, but would manually win a year later,” Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement, referring to Democrat Barack Obama’s 2012 victory over Republican Mitt Romney. .
Munoz added that Biden’s campaign is “working hard to reach and mobilize our diverse, winning coalition of voters a year later on the choice between our winning, popular agenda and the MAGA’s (Trump’s) unpopular extremism Make America Great Again” slogan) Republicans. We will win in 2024 by putting our heads down and doing the work, not by worrying about a poll.”
Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, told MSNBC on Monday that any Democratic panic “is really unwarranted” with the election still a year away.
“The poll is a useful warning to Democrats about the work they have to do,” he said.
“And the fact is, they have their work cut out for them. The economy is the key to all this.
“It takes time for people to absorb the new economic reality.”