California Gov. Gavin Newsom told PBS NewsHour on Monday that Democrats should avoid impeaching President Donald Trump if the party wins back the House, calling the move “a sideshow and a distraction.”
Asked by co-host Amna Nawaz whether he wants Democrats to impeach Trump if they retake the majority, Newsom said he wants Democrats to follow “wherever the facts lead” while making clear he sees political risk in another impeachment push.
“I don’t — if the facts — wherever the facts lead. And I’m not naive about the politics of that, because it will be a sideshow and a distraction. What I don’t want to do is see another impeachment that amounts to nothing except a virtue signal, and that’s important. I just don’t want a sideshow,” Newsom said.
Newsom argued Democrats would be better served pushing what he described as a positive policy agenda rather than chasing impeachment headlines. He pointed to California’s $11 insulin cap, which he said no other state has matched, along with efforts on diaper access for newborns, paid sick leave, family leave, universal healthcare, and childcare.
“I think that we would be better off, but accountability across the board. And it’s not just Trump, it’s all the folks that are complicit in this great grift. It’s all the folks that are complicit in the rank corruption that is going on in this administration,” he said.
Newsom added that “anyone that’s broken the law, anyone that’s taken advantage of the American people, picked their pocket illegally should be held to account.”
Newsom, widely viewed as weighing a 2028 presidential bid, has increasingly positioned himself as a national voice for the Democratic Party while governing California.
