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Katie Couric Hits Gavin Newsom With Brutal California Stats

Screenshot/YouTube/Katie Couric

Journalist Katie Couric recited poor California statistics to Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom during a Thursday episode of “Next Question with Katie Couric.”

Newsom has been conducting interviews while promoting his new book, “Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery,” amid speculation that he may mount a 2028 presidential bid. Couric told Newsom on her show that California’s economy and education statistics were off-putting to voters.

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“Here’s some other stats … The highest poverty rate tied with Louisiana, the highest unemployment, and as Nick Kristof of the New York Times recently wrote, Mississippi schools outperform California schools, especially for poor kids,” Couric said. “Now, people see that or hear that or read that and they’re like, ‘No thanks, California. No thanks, Gavin Newsom. We’re good.'”

Newsom defended his record for nearly four minutes.

“Our poverty rate’s about average. And we’re right up there with Florida, Louisiana, and others with the supplemental poverty rate, which has been the case for 40 years,” the governor said. “And the original sin there is housing, which has been a problem in California since Ronald Reagan left office as governor. And we simply have a supply-demand imbalance. And we have zoning policies and NIMBY-ism that have been legendary. And we’ve finally broken through with some of the most progressive housing reforms in U.S. history.”

“As it relates to our schools, we’ve seen significant — we’ve seen some of the fastest improvement since 2011 till today as it relates to achievement and reading scores and test scores that we just announced in every category, socioeconomic and grade,” he added. “We saw progress particularly here, interesting, at LA Unified School District.”

Newsom further claimed that Mississippi’s “scores tend to be a little bit inflated” due to holding students back in third grade.

“But a lot of progress has been made in California’s education policy,” he said. “Community schools, after school for all, summer school for all. We were the first to do two free school meals. And of course, we created a brand new grade: preschool for all.”

“We also did the first savings accounts … We have 5.5 million kids, all our kindergartners. We did a $1.9 billion appropriation to create these college savings accounts, these career accounts, in addition to these baby bonds that we’re doing — all in an effort to try to deal with financial literacy, connect the dots in terms of wealth disparity, not just income disparities, and address some of these systemic issues of poverty,” he added.

Kristof wrote in a Feb. 9 piece that black students in Mississippi were over twice as likely to reach reading proficiency by fourth grade compared to their peers in California. He added that impoverished Mississippi and Louisiana students were more likely to reach reading proficiency than their peers in California, Massachusetts and New York.

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith also cast doubt on the viability of Newsom’s potential 2028 presidential bid, citing the state’s struggles under his leadership on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” in April.

“There is no doubt, respectfully, Mr. Governor of California, that your record won’t hold the muster … here’s the reality, sir: with the homelessness, with the crime, with the cost of living in California, I can’t imagine Gavin Newsom winning a presidential election with what is going on in the state of California,” Smith said. “Period.”

Newsom holds a 41.8% unfavorable rating and a 30.4% favorable rating, according to a Decision Desk HQ polling average.