'I've Been in a Big Fight With Gavin Newsom': Sean Hannity Explodes at California Governor in Blistering Takedown 

In the debut episode of Sean Hannity’s newly launched podcast, "Hang Out with Sean Hannity," the Fox News fixture launched a blistering swipe against California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), whom he called a “Trump stalker.”

Hannity and his guest, Stephen A. Smith, the sports TV personality and host of ESPN's First Take, criticized Newsom for several things, including recent comments regarding his SAT scores and reading ability, which the hosts characterized as an attempt to "talk down" to voters during a book promotion event.

While speaking with Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, Newsom said, "I'm like you. I'm no better than you. You know, I'm a 960 SAT guy. And, you know, and I'm not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there, if you've got 940.”

Newsom made these comments while discussing his lifelong struggle with dyslexia, explaining, "You've never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech.”

Critics, including Hannity, argued the comments were condescending and racially insensitive, raising questions about how the 58-year-old 2028 Democratic presidential hopeful's words influence public perception among a largely Black audience.

The governor dismissed the criticism as manufactured MAGA outrage.

“You wanna know why I’m a Republican? Because you can’t screw up more than your buddy Gavin Newsom. I notice he’s not coming on your show,” Hannity said to Smith.

Smith, a Democrat who has been a vocal critic of his own party, replied, “Not yet,” before Hannity added, “Not yet? I’ve been in a big fight with Gavin.”

He assured Hannity that if he does come on his show, The Stephen A. Smith Show on SiriusXM, he would defend the Fox host over the comely California governor.

“Well, I’m going to say something that’s going to get me in trouble, but I don’t care: I will defend you to the hilt against Gavin Newsom for one reason and one reason only, that debate that he had against Governor DeSantis, you could not have been more fair,” Smith said.

Hannity agreed and quipped, “You said, uh, I shocked the s--- out of you.”

“You shocked the s--- out of me,’ I said, ‘I can’t believe it.’ I said you were fair. And I was like, that’s all you needed to do,” Smith replied.

Hannity admitted that Newsom had potential, but not enough to carry him through 2028.

“Gavin’s a disappointment to me in this sense; he had potential, a lot of potential. I don’t think he is going to make it for a lot of reasons. This guy now is a full-time podcaster, full-time Trump stalker on X, you know, a full-time world traveler, now he’s an author,” he said, referring to Newsom's newly released memoir, Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery.

“For a guy that, if you live in the Pacific Palisades and you lost your home and it’s a year and four months later and you can’t get a building permit and he’s on book tours and he is in Davos and he is in Munich and he’s fighting with Sean Hannity and fighting with Donald Trump and doing podcasts with this person and that person and, meanwhile, they got the highest income taxes sales taxes gas taxes — and you have people racing out of your state because they have a referendum tax on billionaires in Silicon Valley, he ought to be fixing problems,” he concluded.