Gov. Gavin Newsom, 2024 State of the State address. (Photo: gov.ca.gov)
‘Don’t You Lie To Me’ Gavin Newsom
Politicians lie – not all politicians lie, but many politicians lie
By Katy Grimes, July 19, 2025 9:25 am
There are many songs about lies, liars, cheaters, deceivers, and fibbers – “Don’t You Lie To Me” by Chuck Berry, “Suspicious Minds” by Elvis Presley, “Take It On The Run” by REO Speedwagon, “Lyin’ Eyes” by the Eagles, “The Policy of Truth” by Depeche Mode – all express how rotten it is when someone lies to you.
A pathological liar is a liar who lies incessantly to get their way and does so with little awareness. Pathological lying is often a warning sign of antisocial personality disorder (commonly known as a psychopath). A pathological liar is usually considered manipulative, selfish, and cunning.
A compulsive liar is a habitual liar. Compulsive liars bend the truth about everything, large or small. For a compulsive liar, telling the truth is very awkward and uncomfortable, while lying feels right.
We too frequently see pathological and compulsive liars in politics – lying about military service, lying about participation in sports, lying about loving rock or country music, lying about their education, lying about their employment history, lying about wealth sources, lying about extramarital affairs, and other lies involving gold bars and money hidden in freezer compartments…
Politicians lie. Not all politicians lie, but many politicians lie.
California Governor Gavin Newsom is no stranger to lies, whether covering up an extramarital affair, lying about going into alcohol rehab, lying about the severity of Covid after getting busted several times flaunting his own mandated lockdowns, masking and vaccine orders, lying about the fast food minimum wage law after carving out an exemption for childhood friend and political donor Greg Flynn, Panera Bread owner, embellishing his college sports history, and lying about his policy record and policy positions, which shift more frequently than a chameleon, now that he is running for President.
Newsom even lies about his position(s) on biological men in girls sports – he panders to whoever asks the question as he did with Charlie Kirk on his own podcast, and again with Shawn Ryan on Ryan’s podcast last week. He never really answers the question, and instead tries to make it about him and how he is trying to figure out the “whole LGBTQ and trans thing,” as if they are one-in-the-same. Newsom has issued no policy or executive order to get biological boys out of women’s sports in California, even though he says it is “deeply unfair.”
Knowing that a politician lies affects the credibility of everything else they say.
Newsom’s old tale about needing alcohol rehabilitation served as the crutch for his behavior as Mayor of San Francisco when an affair he had with his campaign manager’s wife, who also worked as his secretary. But, he lied about that too. In 2007, Gavin Newsom said he quit drinking and would seek professional help for “problems with alcohol” after the affair was exposed.
The Daily Mail reported in January 2025 in “Gavin Newsom’s shocking lies about going to rehab after he was caught in affair with best friend’s wife“:
Gavin Newsom admitted he never attended a formal rehabilitation program for alcohol abuse after his affair with his best friend’s wife was exposed, despite previous reports suggesting he had.
“‘There’s no rehab. I just stopped,’ he told the Sacramento Bee during his 2018 run for office. ‘There was no treatment, no nothing related to any of that stuff. I stopped because I thought it was a good thing to stop.
‘There is no 12-step (program) here,’ Newsom added of his time with Delancey Street (rehab). ‘There are no issues with that. There never was. This was a need to reset.'”
Of notable interest is Gavin Newsom’s embellishments that he played varsity baseball in college at the University of Santa Clara and was drafted into major league baseball.
CalMatters’ Alexei Koseff reported on Gov. Newsom last year while he was touring the country “as a leading surrogate for President Biden’s re-election campaign:”
“Newsom told the story himself again in January on the podcast Pod Save America: Because of poor test scores, he was headed to community college until he got a call from the Santa Clara University baseball coaches. “It was literally the ticket to a four-year university. It changed my life, my trajectory,” he said
For their 2004 home opener, the San Francisco Giants invited a special guest to throw the ceremonial first pitch: Gavin Newsom, then just a few months into his first term as mayor of San Francisco.
As Newsom took the pitcher’s mound, wearing dress shoes and a button-down shirt underneath his custom Giants jersey, the announcer informed the crowd that “he played first base for the University of Santa Clara and was drafted by the Texas Rangers.”
The money quote by Koseff on Newsom’s baseball career:
“…his baseball career has provided Newsom a triumphant narrative to push back on the perception that his upbringing was privileged and easy: The high school standout scouted by the major leagues, who overcame his dyslexia and academic shortcomings to earn a partial scholarship to Santa Clara University before an injury forced him to find a new purpose.”
ISideWith adds to the story:
Newsom told the story himself again in January on the podcast Pod Save America: Because of poor test scores, he was headed to community college until he got a call from the Santa Clara University baseball coaches. “It was literally the ticket to a four-year university. It changed my life, my trajectory,” he said.
But former coaches and teammates said that biography, repeated again and again through interviews and glossy magazine profiles and coverage of his 2021 baseball-themed children’s book on overcoming dyslexia, has inflated Newsom’s baseball credentials, giving the impression that he was a more accomplished player than he was.
Most notably: Newsom never played an official game for Santa Clara University; he was a junior varsity recruit who played only during the fall tryouts his freshman and sophomore years, then left the baseball program before the regular season began. He does not appear on the Broncos’ all-time roster or in media guides published by the athletic department to preview the upcoming season.
Mike Cummins, the assistant coach at Santa Clara while Newsom was there, said the governor has “embellished his baseball career a little bit at times.”
“He never played in a varsity game. He may have played in some scrimmages,” said Cummins, who is now the head baseball coach at California State University, East Bay. “He’s embellished it. It’s half-truths. He was recruited to Santa Clara, he was there in the fall, but he never played. He didn’t have a varsity career there.”
… also meaning that Gavin Newsom was never drafted by the Texas Rangers out of college.
“Gavin Newsom is a comfortable liar,” President Trump’s Presidential Envoy for Special Missions Ric Grenell told the Globe. “It doesn’t matter the subject, he makes stuff up regularly. Sadly, the California media largely fails to confront him on it because they are afraid of losing access in a town where the Democrats control everything.”
So, is Gavin Newsom a pathological liar or a compulsive habitual liar? The bigger question is why do so many politicians tell untrue stories about their lives?
A California native and Navy mom, Katy lives in Sacramento, CA.
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The current unknown that Newsom is proffering is that an amendment to redistrict congressional boundaries would win in a special election that would counter Texas’s upcoming redistricting. The problem with Newsom’s claim is that his voters are either being “kidnapped” by ICE or are self-deporting. While I realize that this lands in the area of a political embellishment it is nonetheless a smug statement by our less than truthful governor. I would encourage folks to watch the 2020 election that looks like is falling apart due to corruption and remember that California had a recall in 2021 for the Govenor’s office. It would be interesting to know how many people believe that the art of stealing an election was perfected here in California.
Well leave it to me to be a bit harsh in my answer. I think he is evil.
He is a pathological liar. He can look a woman dead straight in her eyes, she is clearly distressed by the loss of homes and schools in her area and he has the audacity to bold face lie to her, and flee from her by stating he was on the phone with the other Liar in Chief Biden!
Lie, after lie, after lie…..
You could fill an encyclopedia set with the list of all his lies!
Intentional and oh so easy for him! One sick puppy!
Your comment is totally accurate – Newsom has absolutely no moral compass and lies without conscience. He is clearly a member of the most “fitting” political party.
Love this Katy Grimes piece. Informative AND entertaining.
And wow, this is the first I’m hearing that Gavin the Pathological Liar actually admitted (in Jan 2025) he didn’t enter rehab for alcohol abuse after the discovery of his affair with his best friend and campaign manager’s wife when he was Mayor of S.F. Everyone kinda knew it at the time but who knew he had recently admitted it? In the “psych biz” I think the diagnosis would have been that —- because of his narcissistic personality disorder —- Gavin wouldn’t have been a “good candidate,” for a rehab program of any kind anyway. You know, because of his lack of insight, his constant lying, his “God Complex,” etc. But never mind; that’s another discussion for another day.
The funny thing is that I always thought his admission of alcohol abuse at the time of the revelation when he was Mayor of S.F. sounded odd, as though admitting to “drinking too much” would come off better than “completely strung out and a slave to cocaine;” thus he stuck with the alcohol problem story. Which of course (if that is correct) is what he would consider a “little lie” to cover up the “bigger, deeper, darker lie.” I have no evidence of this, just a “hunch.” This is and probably was obvious to others out there who can also remember the evidence. If so, please tell us!
By the way, to answer Katy’s question, I contend that Gavin has always been a pathological liar, and over time the pathological lying became compulsive lying. Thus he is both a pathological liar and a compulsive liar. 🙂
Great article! Every time my husband (an actual college player) hears him talk about his baseball “career” at Santa Clara, he yells, “HE NEVER PLAYED, THE LIAR!” I am not sure if Gavin Newsom would recognize the truth if it smacked him in the head.
Ha ha! Love it.
Chew on THIS, Gavin!!!
It is from your hometown news outlet and refutes the biggest lie that you repeatedly tell, that California is the xth largest economy, blah blah blah
https://youtu.be/D2k511OiKmg?si=4aEnTrDxxXy4NEdP
As is the usual, Newsom has announced an intention to take action for which he has no legal, or even moral authority.
If it were a just world, Newsom would be unceremoniously tied to the nearest tree while Californians line up to take their turn slapping him in the face with a large, dead fish.
“Politicians lie – not all politicians lie, but many politicians lie.” No…ALL politicians lie. Even Trump has a few under his belt.
How about Newsom lying that every fire and drought is caused by “climate change”. He has no proof of this. He’s lying.
Santa Clara was thought to have worked a miracle when saving a small child from a pack of wolves.
Let’s not forget his little white lie on the Shawn Ryan podcast, when he accepted a handgun as a gift. “I am a big supporter of the 2nd Amendment.”
If this guy isn’t talking out of both sides of his neck, he isn’t talking at all. God help this country if this asswipe takes the Presidency…
All I can say is- what a tool. It’s maddening to see the constant lies about progress in rebuilding LA, thee bullet train, men in women’s sports, sex change operations for 8 year olds, homelessness, fire prevention, climate change, the huge budget deficit, illegal immigration, Biden (who he said was running a “master class” on the presidency) and all the other foundational lies about his education, athletic achievements, etc. As for Newsom’s college baseball career, it is much more likely his father, a powerful judge, called Santa Clara university and arranged his admission through baseball, as his test scores were way too low.
I believe Newsom will find that both Democrat rivals and the press will do their homework on his lies, and he will be scrambling every day to lie his way out of it.
While Newsom continues to boast about California’s economy, the state’s unemployment rate rose to 5.4% in June, tying Nevada for the highest rate in the U.S., according to new federal data released Friday. The state lost a net 6,100 jobs, including 9,900 layoffs in business and professional services. Health care and government saw job gains, but other sectors all shrunk. California’s May jobs gains were also revised downwards to a 11,700 increase, down 6,000 jobs compared to a preliminary estimate of 17,700.
https://savingcalifornia.vote/
It’s perplexing as to why anyone would believe anything that a pathological liar like “Hair-gel Hitler” Newsom says? His voter base consisting of mostly liberal urban Caucasian women and members of the alphabet rainbow mafia must be deluded or their minds clouded by mind altering substances? Maybe they’re all NPCs?
Useless lying POS period!
Gavin Newscom is a lying pile of dog shit snake-oil salesman. Never believe a word that comes of that dirt-bags mouth.
The California culture of pathological liars and cheaters are deficient on humility, objectivity and reason. Their lies steal truth to win public trust…
Gavin Newsom, Kamala Harris, Adam Schiff distort reality to protect their selfish desires and hide their fears of disclosure.
Newscum is a liar. That is very true, but he keeps getting away with it. The voters and the media seem to ignore his lies and keep supporting him. I bet if he could run for re-election, California democrats would vote for him