Actor James Woods expressed concern that Governor Gavin Newsom’s rising visibility on the national stage is distracting from California’s poor record, particularly regarding wildfire management. He suggested that, despite some early perceptions of Newsom as a potential presidential candidate, it won’t lead him to truly represent the party’s leadership.
Woods pointed out that Newsom is stepping into a “power vacuum” within the Democratic Party, dismissing other potential leaders as merely “clown shows.” On a recent appearance on “One Nation with Brian Kilmeade,” he remarked, “They don’t have a leader. I mean, Kamala Harris, AOC, all these people—it’s, well, a clown show, and nature abhors a vacuum.”
He cautioned that Newsom’s increased national presence shouldn’t be confused with effectiveness. “This master fraudster, Gavin Newsom, has a terrible track record, but people don’t really focus on that fact. He’s essentially filling that slot,” Woods noted, adding, “But as fruit farmers always say, early ripening, early rotting.”
Woods addressed personal experiences with wildfires, stating that state failures—not climate change—are to blame for the destruction. “Our house survived through adherence to fire department guidelines,” he explained, mentioning he cleared brush while the neighboring house burned down. He also indicated that properties without proper brush management suffered significantly.
According to Woods, the state has long neglected a particular piece of land that has become a fire hazard. “They haven’t cleared that brush since the 1978 fire, because that land is state-managed. They protect plants that are essentially weeds, and that’s where the fires ignited in our neighborhood,” he asserted.
He criticized Newsom for deflecting responsibility by attributing fire management failures to climate change. Additionally, Woods cited San Francisco’s notorious “poop map” as another failure of Newsom’s leadership. “San Francisco, a once beautiful city, had to create that map just so tourists wouldn’t encounter human waste or drug needles on the streets—all because this guy couldn’t stop it,” he said, arguing that California officials ignore deteriorating conditions in the city “unless foreign leaders arrive,” failing to address the issues for “tax-paying, hard-working people.”
