Newsom is just a few days into a book tour but has come under fire for remarks that some have considered racist.
Newsom's middling academic record and lifelong struggles with dyslexia are a key piece of his narrative as he seeks relatability with audiences. But conservatives have seized on comments about those struggles made Sunday during a conversation with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, who is black.
“I'm just trying to impress upon you: I'm like you, I'm no better than you, I'm a 960 SAT guy,” he said, referring to a lower-than-average score on the commonly used college entrance exam.
Republicans said Newsom was disparaging black people by suggesting they weren't smart, an assertion Newsom and his office forcefully denied.
“Black Americans aren’t your low bar,” South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, who is black, wrote on social media. “We’ve built empires, created movements, outworked, outhustled and outsmarted people like you. Stop using your mediocre academics as a way to patronize communities. Its ridiculous!”
Meanwhile, he's facing blowback from California Democrats over other remarks made this week.
He told CNN in an interview aired Monday that the Democratic Party needs to be “more culturally normal” and “less prone to spending a disproportionate amount of time on pronouns, identity” while emphasizing energy costs, child care and other kitchen table issues.
“It’s deeply concerning for anyone, especially our elected leaders, to be defining who or what is ‘culturally normal.’ By definition, it implies someone else is ‘not normal,'" the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus said in a statement.
“We cannot adopt the language of MAGA extremists who in the last year are actively seeking to roll back the rights of women, LGBTQ+ individuals and marginalized communities,” the caucus wrote.
