In basketball, a player who falls to the floor in an attempt to get the ref to call a foul is said to be “flopping.” In politics, a politician making a trip purely to bathe himself in media pictures and punditry, who cartoonishly falls to the ground in a video seen ‘round the world, is also “flopping.” Good job, Gavin!

By now, you’ve seen Gavin Newsom’s epic fall. It was not a fall in the way Joe Biden regularly falls, while just walking up the stairs or even merely walking at all. Gavin fell while showing off, preening as he cratered while showing young Chinese kids how good he is at basketball. The video is a must-see. In fact, his entire recent world tour—and the media swoon—are emblematic of the empty, elitist, photo-op-centric nature of the huckster positioning himself to be President (and in so doing, posting-up VP Kamala Harris—to continue the hoops theme—as if she were the kid that Newsom “schooled” as he fell in the China video).

The trip to China, with a stopover in Israel, put Newsom on the global stage, albeit at a time when his presence in Israel was an obviously empty gesture, inserting himself needlessly into wartime tension and chaos. Then the China leg of the trip was a clear net debit to the national interest of de-coupling from our economic dependence on the CCP, our naïve climate agenda fantasy about China, and their moral failure on human rights violations in the country. 

Newsom went to Israel, where he met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, hoping to have a touch of Bibi’s actual knowledge and resolve rub off on him. So, at that meeting, Newsom must have offered to send supplies to Israel, or maybe send a plane to help some Americans get home, right? No. That was Newsom’s nemesis, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who, without needing a trip to Israel, succeeded in getting Americans out of harm’s way. It’s worth repeating—DeSantis brought Americans home from the Middle East. Also worth noting: Even Joe Biden’s State Department couldn’t make return flights immediate, efficient, and seamless.

Newsom taking a header in China is both laugh-out-loud funny and a metaphor for the China affair, and “affair” is used literally. Newsom, ostensibly representing the economic interests of the Golden State, talked about the relationship with China in terms usually reserved for matrimony: he said that “divorce is not an option” in our dealings with China—especially on Newsom’s greatest fear weapon, climate change—apparently concluding that continuing a one-sided relationship with a dishonest, even morally corrupt partner is worth staying in for the money. This is like staying with your spouse because he or she is rich and powerful, despite treating you disrespectfully and with contempt. Bad plan. Newsom’s “crush” is crushing the environment, as China continues to lead the globe in building coal power plants that pump enormous amounts of CO₂ into the atmosphere.  

Newsom may have a “flexible” view of China’s behavior, and is presiding over many problems in California—soaring crime, ever-growing homelessness, residents fleeing the state, unaffordable housing prices, and unending inflation, especially gas prices—yet despite his statements of denial and less-than-stellar numbers in California, he is behaving like a politician running for POTUS. His two-stop trip to locales that are at the center of global news allows Newsom to bask in the glow of the news lights and social media posts.

More bright lights, fireworks, and social media trending are scheduled for the November 30th Newsom/DeSantis Shootout at the Fox News Corral, with Sheriff Sean Hannity as moderator. While this won’t be a softball interview like Newsom’s recent 60 Minutes turn, it’s pretty likely that Newsom will hold his own, resulting from his practice of giving unrelentingly empty, pontifical, and aggressively misdirecting responses to simple, direct questions—what CalMatters dubbed “lingo bingo.”

Newsom has also mastered the art of divining “statistics,” summoning a rapid-fire series of numbers to “prove” his point in on-camera interviews, numbers that he knows will not be—cannot be—fact-checked in real-time. Fox 11’s Elex Michaelson, in a one-on-one interview upon Newsom’s return, pressed Governor Globetrotter (traveler, not Harlem) on the COVID shutdown’s impact on education. Newsom claimed that the state of education is doing great, in fact, better than Florida, which always seems to be his barometer. Florida is ahead of California, but who could blame an interviewer for not having refuting facts at their fingertips? 

The American Spectator’s Donald Devine makes a compelling case that the Democrats will try to Machiavelli Newsom into the slot that should go to Kamala Harris when Failing Joe’s falling poll numbers, horrendous economy, tragedies abroad and border nightmare doom his candidacy. It seems 60 Minutes has become the mouthpiece of choice for the Dems—last week, the Veep more than showed why she isn’t ready (and may never be) to carry the football, opening a hole for the unbalanced Governor from the state that Americans know is sunny and warm but also woke, expensive, filled with homelessness, bleeding population and businesses, and run by union thugs abetted by Democrat politicians like the Governor. BadGavin.com chronicles Newsom’s past and present misdeeds in case you need a refresher.

Former Presidential candidate Larry Elder, speaking on KABC Radio’s John Phillips Show, called the video of Newsom falling in his fancy suit and slippery shoes in China, “White Governors Can’t Jump.” Newsom surely showed that he can’t jump, but his two-country trip, despite the efforts of an obedient, fawning media to claim otherwise, was a world-class flop.

Drew Hayes was most recently VP/Market Manager and Program Director of KABC Radio in Los Angeles. He has also programmed and managed News, Talk, and Sports stations in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Dallas, as well as the ESPN Radio Network. He began his career in Miami as a talk-show host and sportscaster, occasionally having to bite his tongue. He can be reached at [email protected].