Psaki: Biden ‘Clearly Opposes’ Any Effort to Recall California Gov. Newsom

As of this past Sunday, organizers of a petition to recall California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) claim to have collected more than 1.4 million signatures, only 100k away from what the necessary amount would be, if all the signatures were verified.

As FiveThirtyEight pointed out, the state still needs to verify that all those signatures are valid, but 410,087 of the 485,650 that the state has checked so far are indeed valid and at that validation rate of 84 percent, organizers need only to submit 1.8 million signatures or more before the deadline of March 17.

The organizers were given almost double the normal amount of time to collect signatures in light of the difficulties posed by the pandemic thanks to a judge’s decision.

It looks like that extra time has made a big difference because as of November 17, the original deadline for collecting signatures, the campaign told The Daily Caller it had collected fewer than 750,000 signatures out of the 1,495,709 necessary to trigger an actual recall election.

The news has apparently reached the White House now, as the Press Secretary Jen Psaki issued a tweet defending the beleaguered governor, who has only been in office for two years.

“In addition to sharing a commitment to a range of issues with Gavin Newsom from addressing the climate crisis to getting the pandemic under control, President Biden clearly opposes any effort to recall,” Psaki stated in the tweet.

In addition to sharing a commitment to a range of issues with @GavinNewsom from addressing the climate crisis to getting the pandemic under control, @POTUS clearly opposes any effort to recall @GavinNewsom

— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) February 9, 2021

Newsom political strategist Dan Newman has dismissed the effort, claiming that it is politically motivated. “There are a lot of ambitious Republicans who want to be governor but would rather not play by the rules,” he insisted.

In a statement, state Democratic Party Chairman Rusty Hicks made a similar claim and said that “the California Republican Party continues to demonstrate how disconnected they are from the plight and pain of working families.”

There are currently two Republicans who have announced their candidacies – former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who entered the race last week, and businessman John Cox, who announced on Monday.