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Ezra Klein: “To get attention, you need conflict.”

Featuring: Ezra Klein, Liberal | New York Times Columnist and Podcast Host | National

How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show

Published December 10, 2025 | Video Starts at 1:41:12

I think to describe reality honestly is to say things that if you're a fan of Donald Trump, are going to be hard to hear. That's right. To get attention, you need conflict. You have been, without any peer, the most successful elected Democrat this year. And getting social media attention by mimicking Trump's style, talking about JD's, Vance's love of couches. (1:41:12–1:41:16)

CLAIM

Asserts that conflict is necessary to gain attention.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Ezra Klein

“They are the most alcohol addicted, most drug addicted, most suicidal, most depressed, most medicated generation in history.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 12:34-12:41
“California ranks 50th on affordability.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 35:04-35:07
“In Sweden, I think more than 80% of single family homes are now offsite modular or off site manufactured.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 41:29-41:36
“The net worth held by the top 0.1% of households in the US reached $23.3 trillion in the second quarter of this year.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 48:23-48:32
“That is up from $10.7 trillion a decade earlier.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 48:31-48:35
“The amount held by the bottom 50% increased to 4.2 trillion from 900 billion.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 48:35-48:42
“In California, there actually was subsidized government healthcare for undocumented immigrants.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:12:01-1:12:07
“If you look at the polymarket betting odds on who will be the 2020 Democratic nominee, [Gavin] Newsom is far ahead of anyone else.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 00:27-00:34
“California routinely ranks as the least affordable state in the nation.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 03:18-03:23
“Everybody says, and I believe California is a place where the future happens first.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 05:42-05:47
“If you can't get a house, if you don't see a path to get a house.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 18:09-18:13
“It's not even feasible in a lot of these cities to ever get a house.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 18:17-18:23
“Once you feel like you can get on that ladder, you're okay.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 18:27-18:30
“Liberal democracy will not work if policy cannot deliver at the speed of elections.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 24:57-25:04
“When Medicare passed, it took one year for the Medicare cards to go out.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 25:15-25:19
“When Biden... passed negotiating down Medicare drug prices... the first time people will pay those lower prices is next year.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 25:18-25:43
“The model where government doesn't deliver is also corrosive.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 28:07-28:13
“Savage's view is that California is a kind of hellscape.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 32:46-32:50
“You put a 3.5 million housing production goal.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 36:53-36:57
“But you're not on track for either goal.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 37:11-37:13
“I think of California having a big downturn in rents.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 37:33-37:37
“With Trump's tariffs and deportations is getting worse on a bunch of levels.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 39:17-39:21
“But we fundamentally tax income, not wealth.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 50:39-50:42
“It is difficult to tax wealth. It is not impossible to tax wealth. I mean we used to have a strong or a stronger estate tax in this country…”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 50:43-50:54
“Is a society that has that level of wealth inequality a politically stable or inevitably just.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 52:49-52:59
“Here's, I think the difficulty on taxes for Democrats people. I mean, polling on this is clear, including among many Republicans, people…”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 54:59-55:09
“Silicon Valley has become the epicenter of the global AI revolution.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 58:33-58:44
“The culture of Silicon Valley has changed. The politics of it have changed very rapidly in this period.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 58:46-58:51
“AI is going to be a big part of the next turn of politics.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 59:22-59:27
“I don't think we really know what AI is going to do to the job market or when or to whom.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:01:57-1:02:02
“The process of looking for a job has become hellish.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:02:10-1:02:14
“You're sending endless resumes to dozens of places. They're being read by AI.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:02:21-1:02:28
“Sometimes you're interviewing with AI.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:02:27-1:02:29
“Everybody's using AI to apply. The AIs are reading the AI applicant.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:02:35-1:02:39
“Growth and economic energy and activity have become unexpectedly in the digital era, more concentrated.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:05:48-1:05:56
“Democrats won rural and urban counties at about the same rates not that long ago.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:06:24-1:06:29
“Now Democrats dominate cities really struggle in rural counties.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:06:29-1:06:34
“A couple of years ago, what they [Republicans] figured out...is how much energy there is in the feeling of loss.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:09:37-1:09:55
“There was a big push to, let's call it, phase out cars with internal combustion engines [in California].”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:12:06-1:12:12
“Democrats really became Trump's mirror. He was cruel. They were going to be, be compassionate.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:16:00-1:16:05
“J.D. Vance gives the most interesting speeches of any Republican politician right now.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:19:03-1:19:17
“Vance goes to the Claremont Institute in California to accept an award and gives his speech.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:19:17-1:19:23
“Vance is trying to say that this idea that being in America, being an American is about what you believe is false.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:20:30-1:20:38
“What we have to do is recognize, admit that blood, bloodline, that length of time, numbers of your family buried in cemeteries.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:20:41-1:20:53
“Chuck Schumer did not endorse Zoran Mamdani for Instance.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:26:58-1:27:02
“That allowed Kamala Harris to break ties and pass mostly the Inflation Reduction Act.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:27:23-1:27:28
“The great sin of Democrats, attentionally, in recent years is that they are the party of the institutions.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:32:25-1:32:35
“That worked for a previous era of attention when everything was decided by who the New York Times decided to cover.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:32:48-1:32:54
“You can't do a podcast, a good podcast, with a politician, when you can watch them buffering before they answer.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:33:08-1:33:16
“But we are that divided, actually.”
How Gavin Newsom Became the Democrats' 2028 Frontrunner | The Ezra Klein Show | Uploaded December 10, 2025 | 1:44:22-1:44:25