I tell you what. Gavin Newsom certainly does talk up a good game. He and his good ole buddy Jake Tapper were fly fishing in Montana when Newsom said he’d bow out of the 2028 Presidential race if Kamala decides to officially throw her hat in the ring.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has revealed one factor that could tank his expected presidential bid: fellow Democrat Kamala Harris.

Newsom was asked in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper about his expected White House run, and he didn’t hold back on how the former vice president, his former colleague and rumored frenemy, could change his decision.

“I wouldn’t run if she ran,” Newsom said while fly-fishing with Tapper in Montana.

“I wouldn’t do that to her … I wouldn’t waste anyone’s time,” Newsom explained, calling it “mutually assured destruction.”

Well now, that’s certainly an interesting gambit from a guy who has been running for President without officially declaring he’s running for President. There’s a couple of different prongs to this strategy.

Should Kamala surface out of her wine glass and declare she’s running, Gavin gets to pull the passive aggressive, please pay attention to me as I oh so reluctantly but gracefully bow out. He’ll play on everyone’s sympathies while positioning himself behind the scenes as the guy who could’ve been the winner.

There’s another part to THAT part of the strategy to consider.

First, the California governor confirmed that he intends to run for president, albeit in a backhanded way. He did so without actually declaring , which means he will (for now) avoid all the filing deadlines, legal requirements, and media scrutiny that would have accompanied a formal campaign launch.

Second, and more important, Newsom paid homage to the party. And not just the political elite, such as it is, which coronated Harris in 2024 without holding a single public vote; but also to the coalitions that form the Democratic machine.

By showing deference to the country’s first black and female candidate, Newsom honored two crucial constituencies within the party — blacks and women — who had been skeptical of him.

Which means, if Kamala does throw her hat in the ring, Gavin could potentially help her get some votes she lost in 2024, as long as she runs a better campaign the THIRD time around.

But have you MET Kamala?? The woman burned through billions in less than four months. Grabbed Tim Walz as her jazz hands VP with a Blue Falcon problem, and couldn’t get through a speech without throwing at least one word salad into the mix!

Gavin, who really sucks at fly fishing, is playing a very interesting game here.

Dinner parties with Fauci. Fishing with Gav.

Journalist Jake Tapper, everyone. https://t.co/v7aA7IM1pD pic.twitter.com/8wEla0gkEZ

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 14, 2026

What gets me is that Gavin is fly fishing in business casual. Not a single genuine fly fisherman out there would ever do that! The pandering cringe is off the charts here.

Jake Tapper being friendly and casual
with Democratic Party politicians – An ongoing series. https://t.co/qOCOGSz7ia

— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 14, 2026

What Gavin is attempting to do is court specific demographics of the Democrat base while setting himself up to be the good guy no matter where the chips fall.

Evidently Jake, who admits he sucks at fly fishing, was STUNNED to hear that Gavin would step back if Kamala says yes to running.

“First of all, electorally it’s a gift from God for everybody else,” he explained. “They’d enjoy the hell out of it. Mutual assured destruction. It services no greater good. Why would I do this if I wasn’t trying to serve some greater good? There would be no upside whatsoever.”

But what of the counterargument that she ran in 2019 and didn’t even make it to 2020, then she ran again in 2024 and lost, I asked him.

“That would be the case you’d make,” he acknowledged. “Pretty good one, actually. That’s objectively true. But I know what that means. I know her base of supporters, I know her friends, the (Venn) diagram on that is just pure crossover … I wouldn’t do that to people. I wouldn’t put them in that position … Every other Democrat is praying for that, and every other Republican is gonna pray for that. And that’s just not gonna happen.”

How do you even decide if you’re going to run for president?

“I have no experience in this process, so I’m going through it,” Newsom said. I noted some folks wished he had challenged President Joe Biden in 2024.

“I wasn’t ready,” he said. “First of all, I wouldn’t do that. And second, if I did, I would have gotten crushed because I didn’t have a why. You don’t have big enough why, then you don’t belong there.”

Inquiring minds want to look into the crystal ball to figure out if Gavin would’ve cratered worse than Kamala during the primary, given how he tanked his debate with Ron DeSantis. We all know how things turned out after her coronation. Gavin also has zero experience in anything except the strong hair gel game.

Never mind, he’s just searching for the right time for the zeitgeist stars to align and show him the way.

Feature Photo Credit: original artwork by Victory Girls Darleen Click