As a top Biden-Harris campaign surrogate, the 56-year-old Newsom often faces questions from the media about Biden’s fitness, as well as his own White House ambitions. He has gushed excessively about the president’s devotion to the country and capacity for empathy and declared himself “mesmerized” by the “masterclass” Biden has put on in Washington.

Still, Newsom was asked in the interview that aired Sunday whether the 81-year-old president
needs to do more in public to demonstrate his forcefulness and command.

“I think he’s doing everything he needs to do,” he said. “I mean, he’s got an extraordinary record. He’s doing everything he needs to do on Ukraine at the moment. He’s doing everything he needs to do to reconcile and wrestle some common sense as it relates to a bipartisan approach to address the issue of the border where the Republicans couldn’t take ‘yes’ for an answer because they don’t want to make that a political issue,” he said. “He is leading.”

Newsom also dismissed queries about his own presidential prospects in 2024 and whether he’s gotten calls from anxious donors focused on
a Plan B to Biden. He repeated that he’s bored with such questions and that he doesn’t believe there’s a need for them.

“It’s all idle chatter. You know what? That’s a sideshow. I think what Democrats need to do is worry less, do more, continue to over-perform as we have, continue to win, make the case,” Newsom said.

He said merely engaging in the question about him or somebody else running is a boon to Republicans. GOP officials and conservative media figures for months have speculated about not only Newsom but also Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton.

“It’s a damning conversation, frankly, the other side wants us to have. And trust me, I know the mishegoss coming from the other side. I’m deeply mindful of the anger machine and all the entertainment industry out there on Fox and elsewhere,” said Newsom, a regular consumer of conservative media.

“They love ginning this stuff up. At the end of the day, not only has this train left the station, but we get to enjoy a record of accomplishment as we make the case in a reelection, the likes of which we couldn’t even have dreamt of even as a Democrat last century.”