Gavin Newsom squirms as he’s grilled over soaring cost of CA living

Gavin Newsom squirmed as he was grilled Sunday over the rocketing cost of living crisis battering California.

The governor tried to brush off CNN anchor Dana Bash’s fiery questions, quickly pivoting to growth in the tech and agriculture sectors.

Speaking from Nashville ahead of the launch of his memoir “Young Man In A Hurry,” Newsom was pressed on families who had ditched the Golden State for Tennessee.

Bash said: “California has the highest cost of living in the US, 11% above the national average. Families are leaving because they can’t afford rent, a home, or to raise a family.”

Newsom shot back with a different set of figures, boasting that California has climbed from the sixth- to fourth-largest economy in the world.

“We’ve had hundreds of thousands move into California in the last two, three years,” he said. “We dominate in every key industry — AI, quantum, robotics. We dominate in [agriculture].”

Bash replied: “People are still struggling to afford things, like your mom was.”

While California has posted a modest rebound — growing for the third straight year to about 40 million residents — the longer-term migration picture remains stark.

Over the past decade and a half, nearly 10 million people have left the state for elsewhere in the US, while just over seven million have moved in, resulting in a net domestic loss of roughly three million between 2010 and 2024, according to the American Community Survey.

The numbers underscore the pressure facing many households. California prices were about 11% higher than the national average in 2024, according to the US Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Housing costs ran 53% above the US norm, while utilities were 60% higher — second only to Hawaii.

Bash’s comment about Newsom’s mother comes after the governor has been spinning sob stories about growing up penniless during a strife-filled childhood.

The memoir paints a portrait of young Newsom so tight on cash he had to pick up a newspaper delivery route and sweat out shifts as a busboy to chip in as his recently divorced mother “scrambled to keep the family afloat.”

But critics like Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton said they were tired of the claims of penny-pinching upbringing.

Hilton said Newsom’s grandfather helped elect former Gov. Pat Brown and “the Newsom and Brown families have been trading political favors and lucrative business deals ever since.”

Rep. Nancy Pelosi was tied to the Newsoms when Gavin Newsom’s aunt married into the two-time House Speaker’s family, Hilton noted.

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