After being tested and singed by fire as California’s governor, Newsom seeks another term while pushing the Green New Deal | Dave Ziegler/AP Photo California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was tested for the coronavirus just as he was testing positive for the disease, is calling for the nation to come together to solve the COVID-19 crisis.
DAVIE, Fla. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who was tested for the coronavirus just as he was testing positive for the disease, is calling for the nation to come together to solve the coronavirus crisis.
Newsom on Tuesday called on all Americans to take a pledge of no new debt and to support a stimulus package that would deliver funding for the state and local governments and businesses, as well as federal relief.
California is one of the largest economies in the country, and Newsom was in the midst of his second month as governor when he was tested for the coronavirus in late January.
Newsom, a Democrat, used his test results Tuesday in announcing that he has tested negative, an unprecedented achievement as the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were testing positive for the coronavirus. The testing was done at a government-run lab, and Newsom said he was given no special treatment.
He also announced that he was meeting with Trump, the White House coronavirus task force director and a top member of Congress to discuss steps that California and other states should take.
In a news conference Tuesday night, Newsom said he was “confident in the science” and the “ability to fight this.”
“But we must also realize that the world is going to be a very different world when we’re done with this,” Newsom said. “What we’re going to leave behind is a stronger America. And that’s not the way we get there.”
Trump spoke by telephone with Newsom, and later in the evening they held a meeting with executives from health systems across the country.
Newsom said he and Trump spoke again Wednesday morning and expressed a mutual commitment to a package that would include direct relief to the states and local governments, as well as direct funding for the federal government and for the Pentagon