Gavin Newsom 2020 DNC Speech Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:00) Please welcome Governor Gavin Newsom. Gavin Newsom: (00:06) Well, I confess this is not where I expected to be speaking here tonight. I'm about a mile or so away from one of over 370 wildfires that we're battling here in the state of California. We are just coming off a record week, a heat wave that led to 130 degree temperatures. Highest temperature ever recorded in California, arguably the world's history here in our state. Gavin Newsom: (00:29) The hots are getting hotter, the dries are getting drier. Climate change is real. If you are in denial about climate change, come to California. 11,000 dry lightening strikes we had over a 72 hour period leading to this unprecedented challenge with these wildfires. This is an extraordinary moment in our history. Mother nature has now joined this conversation around climate change. And so we too need to advance that conversation anew. Just today, the present of the United States threatened the State of California, 40 million Americans that happened to live here in the State of California to defund our efforts on wildfire suppression, because he said we hadn't raked enough leaves. Gavin Newsom: (01:14) You can't make that up. Nor can he make up the fact we're involved in over 90 lawsuits with the Trump administration on clean air, on clean water, on endangered species, on pesticides. There is so much at stake in this election, none more important than the work Joe Biden did with Barack Obama on the vehicle emissions standards, the fuel efficiency standards. It will save billions and billions of dollars taxpayers and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. Gavin Newsom: (01:40) There is so much at stake in this election. I couldn't help myself on my way to one of our relief centers, one of our evacuation centers, just to jump out of the car and just express my deep reverence, my admiration to Joe Biden, to Kamala Harris, California's own. To their faith, their devotion, their constancy to their commitment, not just to the environment, but to the Commonwealth. To our kids, our kids' kids, our grandkids to our legacy. Gavin Newsom: (02:12) There is so much at stake in this election. And I just want to close by reminding each and every one of you, the future's not just something to experience, it's something to manifest. It's inside of us, not just in front of us. It's our decision, not our conditions that will determine our fate and future. So let us resolve that after this historic night, this incredible, incredible week, this remarkable convention that we do everything in our power to get Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in to the White House in January, 2021.