[Van Jones, Cnn:] Good evening. Good evening, good evening. I'm Van Jones. Welcome to "The Van Jones Show". We are coming to you tonight from Los Angeles, California, and we've got two pretty important California residents in the studio with us tonight. One happens to be the Governor of the State. My friend Gavin Newsom is here tonight. Oh, my god, we've got the Governor. We also got one of the biggest celebrities in the state, in the country, on planet Earth, you may have heard of her Kim Kardashian West is also in the house tonight on "The Van Jones Show". So much to talk to them about. But first let's talk. This week the Mueller redacted report was finally released, but instead of closure guys, the report actually opened up another round of outrage and exasperation and division in the country. Far from exonerating Trump, Mueller practically invited Congress to step in and do something. And now some Republicans want retaliatory investigations to go after the other side. So we are off to the races again.
[Rep. Steve Cohen:] I believe impeachable offenses have been committed.
[Rep. David Cicilline:] No new indictments, no sealed indictments, no collusion, no obstruction.
[Hogan Gidley, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary:] It's a complete and total exoneration.
[Unidentified Female:] This report does not vindicate President in any way. It turns your stomach.
[Nicolle Wallace, Anchor Msnbc:] Is Sarah Sanders smearing Jim Comey from the podium.
[Sarah Sanders, White House Press Secretary:] I'm sorry that I wasn't a robot like the Democrat Party that went out for two and a half years and stated time and time again that there was definitely Russian collusion between the President and his campaign.
[Rep. Eric Swalwell  Presidential Candidate:] I think Attorney General Barr should resign. He can join the President's legal team if he wants, but that's what he's doing right now.
[Jones:] If Attorney General Bill Barr had wrapped up this process in a neutral professional way then maybe, just maybe, we could have come together as a country to confront Russia's ongoing attack on our democracy. Slim chance I know, it could have happened. But by acting more like Trump's personal attorney, than the Attorney General of the United States, Barr, has made any kind of national unity even harder. And you know who's got to be thrilled? Vladimir Putin. He wanted to see America divided, weakened and tearing itself apart, and that's exactly what he is getting. Still more partisanship, more confusion, more division and it looks like we're going to be stuck in this situation for a very long time, and that kind of stagnation, sadly, is becoming the new normal in America. We are paralyzed on major issues. For instance, today marks the 20th Anniversary of the Columbine Massacre. 20 years since two gunmen shot and killed 12 students and a teacher in a school. Now that was supposed to be the tipping point that united shocked nation to do something about guns and school safety. Now here we are 20 years later, what's changed? Not enough. And sadly the biggest difference we have now is more victims and sometimes less outrage, because we're almost used to these kind of attacks now. Same thing with immigration. We have needed meaningful reform for decades and nothing, nothing. So we've got this ugly partisan battle now about how to treat thousands of people coming to our country for a better life. And Trump is snatching babies from their mothers at the border. Same thing with climate, how long have we been talking about climate disruption? And how many unprecedented floods and fires and hurricanes that we lived through even recently and what's been done? Almost nothing. In fact, at the federal level, we're going backwards. And some people are so frustrated they're protesting in the streets and getting arrested. So as a nation, we are stuck, and I am frustrated, but there is hope, because of the progress that is happening at the state level, especially right here in California. So let's talk about all of this with the leader of this great state, please welcome to "The Van Jones Show", Governor Gavin Newsom.
[Gov. Gavin Newsom:] There is hope.
[Jones:] There is hope.
[Newsom:] There is hope.
[Jones:] Hey, listen, I know we're going to get into it, but before we get into that, this whole Mueller thing, how do you think about this?
[Newsom:] Look, I thought you said it well. Forget Rudy Guiliani, who needs someone better than the AG himself as a defense attorney. I mean, that was a remarkable display of preemptive strategy. That is, you know, become normalized. And the challenge is, we can't let it be normalized and I think that's where we have to express the outrage. You framed that whole start of the show it's a perfect frame, even on Columbine. What we've accepted as normalized and we can't do that. We're capable of doing so much more and so much better, but only if we have a courage to express that.
[Jones:] Yes,
[Newsom:] And not allow the normalization of this.
[Jones:] And that's I think, that becomes a big challenge for Democrats. What should be done? I mean some people are saying that Congress should take Mueller's hints and go for with impeachment. I mean do you think that the impeachment is the right way to go? Should we wait for 18 months? I mean, just how do you think about this?
[Newsom:] Well, you got an election coming up next year at this stage and I think we have more than enough to go on the obstruction charges. I mean those seem fairly overwhelming. I mean, you just read some of those I mean one of those charges would be it's just jaw- dropping. I mean, the fact that there's a dozen plus. So Congress has plenty to do. But there also is a lot of work to be done on behalf of the American people that it has not part of this report.
[Jones:] Do you think Democrats be better off focusing on that and avoiding the impeachment thing or-
[Newsom:] People need to be held to account. This report is an indictment of the current administration and many members of the administration, we need to pursue that. We would not be doing our job. We won't be doing justice or advancing justice without doing. But you have to do that and focus on the issues of affordability and housing and homelessness, the issue of education and obviously deep issues related to climate change and the like.
[Jones:] Well, I believe you when you say it, because you do it every day. You've got the biggest you've got the fifth biggest economy in the world-
[Newsom:] Right.
[Jones:] right here in California. 40 million people, dozens of languages spoken. Do you feel like a Governor, or are you actually running your own country out here, it's so big.
[Newsom:] So it is I mean, I do feel like it's a nation state. I mean, that's one of the reasons I visited El Salvador last week, because we had the current President elect of El Salvador who campaigned in California. And you'd say why would a President aspirant someone who is aspiring to be President of a foreign country campaign in because half the El Salvadoran population in United States is in California. 27% of this state is foreign-born. We are a majority minority state. Truly a universal state. We're a state of refuge. We're state of asylum. It's a remarkable experiment at scale of people living and advancing together across every conceivable difference. It's a special place. And at our best, not just as Californians, but I'd argue as Americans, we're at our best when we don't tolerate our diversity, but we really celebrate it. And I think in California we do that about as well or better than most. It makes me proud. Well I think you should be proud. Let me ask you, though, the President sees it somewhat differently. And in fact, you guys have been kind of going back and forth at each other on the question of immigration. I mean, the President said that he's going to let all the people who you want in the country to come into the sanctuary cities in California. Would you welcome that? You love immigrants that much? So what is that, I'm trying to figure out? So he campaigns saying he was going to detain people to deport them. And then a week ago he says, no, no we're going to detain people to then send them into the United States into sanctuary cities. And then the AG, a couple days after that, says no, no, we're going to detain people, but for a longer period of time. I mean, which is it?
[Jones:] Right.
[Newsom:] I mean they're flailing. He's just a punch-drunk boxer. He's just sort of throwing punches and jabs. Everything he's done on immigration is an abject failure. Meanwhile, there are states like California that are trying to pick up the pieces, including pick up and lift up people that are being dumped on the streets and sidewalks already in sanctuary cities like San Diego and throughout this state. Hundreds of legal asylum seekers, their children are being dumped out of bus stops with no place to go. They can end up homeless, in emergency rooms. And you know what, I'm proud of my state. We opened an asylum center to allow people at least the dignity of some stability and some encouragement that this is not who we are as Americans. And we have principles and values that stand up.
[Jones:] Yes. Beautiful. A lot of people love what you're saying, but we have now you're starting to see some cracks so even on the Democratic side. Cher, herself, tweeted. "I understand helping struggling immigrants, but my city Los Angeles, is not taking care of its own. What about the 50,000 citizens who live on the streets and below poverty line? If my state can't take care of its own, including veterans, how can it take on more?" That's not a right-wing person, that's a liberal progressive Cher-
[Newsom:] Yes.
[Jones:] saying that.
[Newsom:] Who I know and respect and like. And so let me be respectful, but also responsible to that critique and make this argument. California has the nation's largest homeless population, so I understand where that comes from. It's out of control, it's unacceptable and we are working aggressively to address that. But let me just make this point. I come from San Francisco, and I come from a city whose past is not as proud as its present. I come from a city that advanced the Chinese Exclusion Act. I remember the exact same language in the late 1800s where a guy named Denis Kearney who would make Donald Trump blush. He's original Donald Trump. That began and ended every speech by saying, whatever else we do, the Chinese must go. We've had enough. They're taking away jobs and they're diminishing your capacity to live your lives. This is old rhetoric. The fact is we have a population of that actually is getting a little older. We need a population that's reinvigorated and I'll tell you immigrants reinvigorate our society, and these are some of the hardest workers in this country. And interestingly, some of the same people criticizing are net beneficiaries of these same immigrants.
[Jones:] Listen, I appreciate your passion and you've always been passionate about this stuff. Are you the anti-Trump? I mean, how do you think of your role as a Governor in Trump era.
[Newsom:] I don't wake up every morning trying to find a crowbar to put in the spoke of the wheels of the President of United States to trip him up. But I'll tell you, I'm going to have the backs of our diverse communities the attacks, our diversity, attacks people, demeans them and dehumanizes people, I'm going to stand up for them. I mean, if he attacks our clean air and clean water, I'm going to stand up for clean air and clean water. If he wants to dismantle the Affordable Care Act and increase premiums for millions of millions of Californians, I'm going to stand up against that. Look, I do govern the most un-Trump state in America, there's no doubt about that. But I also see my role is not just the center of the resistance, but a positive alternative to Trump and Trumpism. And I think in many ways we are we're running a 20-plus billion dollar operating surplus. We are paying off our debt, paying down pension obligations, leading the nation. I mean, you talk about the green economy. California is leading the world, not just the nation, in low carbon green growth and changing the way we produce and consume energy. We have progressive values that are at play at scale and we're producing real economic results.
[Jones:] Let's talk about them. I one of the first things we ever did together back in 2005, you did the UN World Environment Day, the "Green Cities"
[Newsom:] Right.
[Jones:] all that stuff almost 15 years ago, so it's not new to you. But, listen, some of the stuff that California says is going to do going to half renewable energy in 12 years.
[Newsom:] Easy.
[Jones:] Easy?
[Newsom:] Easy.
[Jones:] OK. Now, look, I'm going to tell you right now that you going to have people saying now this makes no sense. How is it easy
[Newsom:] Well, if you can argue that or you can prove it and we're proving it. We're at 34 percent today renewables. Now, if you consider non-carbon sources, which is hydro and nuclear, we're at 55 percent today. We're not asserting a paradigm. We're proving a paradigm at scale. And by the way, as we've advanced our carbon goals, we've grown our economy at a faster clip than the United States of America itself. I don't think we can do this. I know we can do this. The Green New Deal, come to California, you'll see it being advanced at scale. It's a point of pride and principle.
[Jones:] I've always liked you. When you talk, I start to hear, a little song in the back of my head, "Hail to the Chief" kind of a song. So, again it's am I wrong? Did anybody hear that? Anybody else hear that?
[Newsom:] No.
[Jones:] it was me.
[Newsom:] Not a chance.
[Jones:] Talk to me about whether or not you got a White House running your field.
[Newsom:] Oh, no. Literally I'm so proud of the folks coming from California. We got Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. I mean, that's about as good as it gets right now. So I sleep well at night, Adam Schiff from an oversight perspective, Kamala Harris who's ascended. It's just remarkable.
[Jones:] Why you endorse it well, you got 30,000 people running for Democrat, you endorsed Kamala Harris-
[Newsom:] 40.
[Jones:] Well, why did you endorse Kamala Harris?
[Newsom:] Because I've known her for 25 years. I worked with her when she was a DA and I was Mayor, when she was Attorney General, I was Lieutenant Governor, when she became U.S. Senator and I'm Governor. I've seen her firsthand. I seen her mature and grow. I know her character. I know her conviction. I know her capacity. She's the real deal. Look out. She's the reason she's where she is, as quickly she is, because she deserves to be there.
[Jones:] Well, do you think we got too many candidates? I mean we got so many people running, doesn't that advantage maybe a Bernie Sanders that already got a baked in thing.
[Newsom:] You know what, there was five or six years ago people said, the Democratic Party has no leadership, well, there's no bench. Boy, we're proving that wrong. Remember, I come from California. This is a state where the Republican Party was the dominant party in the 1990s. Their third party status today, one reason the xenophobia, the nativism-
[Jones:] It killed them.
[Newsom:] the politics of fear and anger and grievance, it's the same politics being spewed by the President of United States. Republican Party, pay attention, he's walking you off a cliff.
[Jones:] Awesome. Well, listen, coming up, we got a lot more to talk about with Governor Newsome, including his major move to put a stop to the death penalty in California. Why did he do it, and how does he respond to the backlash coming from President Trump and bunch of other people, that's next when we get back.