Elder tells supporters report ‘shenanigans,’ Newsom campaigns in LA

LOS ANGELES – In this last week before the recall election next Tuesday, Governor Gavin Newsom and the leading Republican hopeful to succeed him Larry Elder were out to rally voters this Labor Day holiday weekend.

Newsom has seen an upward tick in approval numbers recently with the latest poll released by the Public Policy Institute of California showing that if the recall election were held today, 39 percent of California likely voters say they would vote yes to remove Newsom from office, while 58 percent say they would vote no on removing the governor.

As Newsom spent the weekend crisscrossing the Los Angeles region, Elder appeared Sunday on Fox News, speaking with Howard Kurtz, the host of Fox News’s Media Buzz program. Elder appeared to be preparing to position himself to launch a legal challenge of the recall election’s results should the governor prevail, laying the ground work for allegations of election fraud.

Referencing the lies of former President Donald Trump with his unsubstantiated claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him by Joe Biden, Elder told Kurtz; “The 2020 election, in my opinion, was full of shenanigans. And my fear is they’re going to try that in this election right here and recall. So I’m urging people to go to ElectElder dot com. Whenever you see anything, hear anything suspicious, go to my website. We have a battery of lawyers. We’re going to file a lawsuit in a timely fashion this time.” 

Elder claimed that “we know there were shenanigans in Michigan, shenanigans in Wisconsin, in Pennsylvania,” naming three of the half a dozen states where Biden narrowly edged Trump last November. “There are all sorts of reasons why the 2020 election, in my opinion, was full of shenanigans.”

Elder has a track record of touting what some progressives in California have labeled as extremist right-wing conservative positions, including Newsom who took aim at Elder during a stop Monday at the African American Voter Registration, Education, and Participation rally event in Baldwin Hills.

“California’s made great progress, we’re going to roll back that progress. We’re at Labor Day, and [Elder] doesn’t believe in the minimum wage, doesn’t believe there should be a corporate tax, doesn’t believe in labor rights, doesn’t even believe women are as smart as men,” Newsom told KTLA’s Megan Telles after Monday’s rally in Baldwin Hills. “He’s the last thing Californians need.”

Elder has taken a hardline position on women’s reproductive right maintaining if elected governor that he would take several hard-right steps to curb abortion rights in California.

The conservative radio talk show host told Kurtz he is running to save California and small businesses hurt during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I know that Gavin Newsom has mandated that every state worker who has not been vaccinated be tested once a week and wear a face mask at work. I’m going to repeal it before I have my first cup of coffee,” Elder said.

Fox reported that a new Newsom advert running on California airwaves warns that “what’s at stake in the September 14 recall? It’s a matter of life and death.” And it charges that Elder “peddled deadly conspiracy theories and would eliminate vaccine mandates on day one.”

“I’m not anti-vax, despite what his ads say. I’ve been vaccinated because I’m in a high-risk category and I urge people who are in categories that are high-risk to be vaccinated,” he insisted.

“But I don’t believe the science does compel children to be vaccinated. They’re not likely to contract the coronavirus. They’re not likely to get really sick. They’re not likely to go to hospital and they’re certainly not likely to die,” Elder told Kurtz.

Elder has also embraced Trump’s theory that the coronavirus was manufactured by the government of the People’s Republic of China. Elder also argued that Newsom is “trying to turn this (the recall election) into a referendum against (coronavirus pandemic) scare because he can’t defend his record.”