On Monday about how Joe Biden¡¯s first weekly address highlighted, of
all things, my office helping a constituent harmed by Gavin Newsom¡¯s
incompetence. Newsom apparently wasn¡¯t pleased.
Having inadvertently helped make the case for the Recall over the
weekend, Biden suddenly came out in opposition to it yesterday. He
chose not to make a statement himself, however, instead handing the
task to his press secretary Jen Psaki, who could only describe Newsom
as ¡°somebody who he has been engaged with in the past.¡±
She then tweeted: ¡°In addition to sharing a commitment to a range
of issues with @GavinNewsom from addressing the climate crisis to
getting the pandemic under control, @POTUS clearly opposes any effort
to recall @GavinNewsom.¡±
Putting aside that this was improperly posted from an official
government account, can you imagine a weaker endorsement? Such tepid
support is more damaging than if Biden had just stayed out of it; it
shows Newsom is seen as politically radioactive by the leader of his
own party.
Even while publicly saying he¡¯s not focused on the Recall ¡°at all,¡±
Newsom has been calling legislators to try to shore up support. He¡¯s
even wrangled a few into making positive statements at press
conferences that have become taxpayer-funded pep rallies. Lauren
Rosenhall with CalMatters wrote, ¡°These covid updates appear to be
doing double duty as recall-prevention sessions.¡±
A ¡°decisive factor in making the recall effort viable,¡± according
to news reports, is Newsom¡¯s school closures. So last week he finally
acknowledged that ¡°we can safely reopen schools¡± ¨C which is exactly
what I told him on July 16, 2020.
Yet kids remain at home because Newsom¡¯s biggest campaign funder,
the California Teachers Association, has declared that ¡°the virus is
in charge right now.¡± Apparently the virus decided not to pull rank in
the 45 states without school closure orders.
The CTA will spend obscene sums of money to protect their
investment and keep Newsom in office. In an interview with Fox News,
which , I encouraged teachers to cut off this funding by
opting out of dues. While the union absurdly responded that ¡°Mr. Kiley
is wrong and obviously doesn¡¯t understand the laws,¡± the law is
actually quite simple: every teacher has a constitutional right not to
forfeit their paycheck to the Newsom war chest.
And make no mistake, it truly is a war chest. The Newsom
camp¡¯s rhetoric has become increasingly bellicose, using phrases like
¡°war council¡± and ¡°going to war.¡± Which is exactly what you expect
when there¡¯s no defense on the merits.
Kevin Kiley,
California Legislator,
Allyson Taylor