By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2025-01-14 23:51:31 | Updated at 2025-01-15 06:27:27
6 hours ago
He’s fidgeting while LA burns.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom is getting raked over the coals online for his strange shimmy during a local TV interview addressing the ongoing fire crisis in Los Angeles County.
Newsom was interviewed by the local Fox affiliate in Los Angeles on Monday, standing in front of the charred wreckage wrought by the fires that have plagued the city for over a week.
While discussing the potential of property speculators swooping into the once coveted neighborhoods afflicted by the fires — Newsom grins ear-to-ear and does an effective shoulder shimmy while trying to calm residents’ fears.
“I was just talking to Josh Green, the governor of — down in Hawaii,” Newsom says with an apparent chuckle and toothy smile.
The well-gelled governor then shimmies his shoulders up and down while saying: “[Green] had some ideas about some land use concerns he has around speculators coming in, buying up properties and the like so we’re already working with our legal teams to move those things forward and we’ll be presenting those in a matter of days, not just weeks.”
Folks online had a field day with Newsom’s teetering shoulders.
“I wasn’t really concerned about developers buying up all of the property devastated by the California wildfires until Gavin did his weird shoulder shimmy dance while talking about developers buying up all the property devastated by the California wildfires,” one viral post from Kevin Dalton read.
One meme account posted an AI-enhanced video of Newsom shimmying in rhythm and singing along with a man playing the bongo.
“What the actual f–k is wrong with Governor Gavin Newsom, grinning like a maniac while talking about speculators snatching up wilde-fire ravaged properties,” right-wing commentator and Elon Musk fanboy Ian Miles Chong wrote in another viral X post.
Newsom has bigger concerns than online trolls making comments from the peanut gallery — with a recall effort underway in the Golden State.
A non-partisan effort, which was first organized in 2024, will reportedly formally serve recall papers to Newsom in the next two weeks.
“Under the reign of Governor Newsom, living in California has become impossible for average people through years of poor policies,” the statement opens, continuing later, “This was most recently demonstrated by the woefully unprepared and incompetent response to the fires currently ravaging the Los Angeles area.”
