Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Friday that the Democratic brand was “toxic” and that his party had to admit its own mistakes, delivering tough love as Democrats struggle in their fight against the Trump administration.
Mr. Newsom, once considered a liberal combatant, has embarked on a political soul search in the months since President Trump won the White House and Republicans won both houses of Congress. On Friday, he used his strongest language yet to criticize his own party during an appearance on “Real Time With Bill Maher.”
“The Democratic brand is toxic right now,” he said, pointing to a recent NBC News poll that showed Democrats with a 27 percent favorability rating, the lowest in at least a generation.
Mr. Newsom, a possible 2028 presidential candidate, blamed his fellow Democrats for his party’s woes. He criticized Democrats for being judgmental, staying in an echo chamber and resorting to “cancel culture” to ostracize people whose views they find abhorrent.
“We talk down to people,” he said. “We talk past people.”
The governor found in Mr. Maher a sympathetic figure who for decades has questioned Democratic orthodoxy despite his liberal leanings.
Mr. Newsom this month launched a new podcast, “This Is Gavin Newsom,” on which he has interviewed guests from across the political spectrum to discuss, in part, what went wrong for Democrats in the 2024 elections. Early episodes featured conversations with Charlie Kirk, who leads the youth organization Turning Point USA, and Steve Bannon, an architect of President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.
Those guests in particular drew fierce criticism from Mr. Newsom’s liberal allies, who accused the governor of legitimizing right-wing views and failing to correct inaccuracies expressed by his guests.
“This idea that we can’t even have a conversation with the other side?” Mr. Newsom said with incredulity Friday.
“You have to. They won,” Mr. Maher replied.
Democrats have split over how best to confront the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, most notably this month when Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, delivered the votes to avoid a government shutdown. Mr. Schumer defended his decision as a responsible, if unpopular, choice. But many Democrats saw it as a sign that their party was weak.
Internally, Democrats are still trying to figure out what went wrong last year and how they can retake Congress in 2026.
Mr. Newsom hosted Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate last year, for a conversation released last week about “where the hell our party is right now,” as Mr. Newsom put it.
“This is an existential moment, and our unity against Trump is not increasing our trust, it’s not helping the Democratic brand,” Mr. Newsom told Mr. Walz.
Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, also criticized his party on Friday, saying in an interview with Politico that the party would be in a “permanent minority” if it did not get its act together.
On Friday, Mr. Newsom told Mr. Maher: “We need to own our mistakes. We need to own what’s wrong with our party.”
Mr. Newsom’s comments were reminiscent of the time that former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told his own California Republican Party members in 2007 that they were “dying at the box office.” Nearly two decades ago, Mr. Schwarzenegger urged his conservative base to move toward the center to gain relevance in California, at a time when Democrats controlled the legislature and nearly all statewide offices there.
California Republicans for the most part ignored the advice, lost even more seats and have never won statewide office since then. State party activists have taken comfort in the national success of Republicans, who have shifted rightward and made gains elsewhere.
On Saturday, Representative Ro Khanna, another California Democrat who may run for president in 2028, issued a rebuttal to Mr. Newsom and said the Democratic Party was “not ‘toxic.’”
“This is not the time to join the chorus in bashing our party,” Mr. Khanna said on X. “The rage should be about what Trump is doing TODAY. Let’s share what our party has done & offer a forward vision for the future.”
Mr. Newsom surprised Democrats this month when he said on his podcast that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to play in female sports. He reiterated that stance on Friday night, to the approval of Mr. Maher.
The host, however, pressed Mr. Newsom on a California state law that prohibits school districts from requiring teachers to tell parents when a student asks to change their gender identity at school. The Trump administration asserted on Thursday that California’s law violated federal law, and Mr. Maher has taken the position that parents should be informed when their children seek an identity change.
Mr. Newsom defended the law as sound policy, saying that California simply wanted to protect teachers who “did not report or snitch on a kid talking about their gender identity.”
“What is the job of a teacher? It’s to teach,” Mr. Newsom said. “I just think that was fair.”
Mr. Maher has repeatedly expressed his desire to see Mr. Newsom run for president. On Friday, he put the question to his guest: “Are you going to do it or not? Just come on, tell us.”
Mr. Newsom left plenty of room to maneuver after his final term as governor comes to a close in early 2027.
“I deeply respect the question,” he said, “but I don’t have any grand plans as it respects that.”