'Big damn deal': Newsom lays bare 'insidious' Trump scandal that should be front-page news

California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivered a stark warning Friday that the Trump administration's weaponization of the Federal Communications Commission is a bigger threat to American democracy than the foreign corruption scandals dominating the headlines.

Speaking on the Bryan Tyler Cohen podcast, Newsom argued that FCC Chair Brendan Carr's media consolidation push represents something more insidious than Trump's personal enrichment schemes.

"Here's the thing that I hope people pay attention to. It's what Brendan Carr is doing at the FCC. Because the henchman on this is Carr, who was sent out to do what he did prior, which was to celebrate and subtly, indirectly encourage Nexstar and Sinclair to shut down Kimmel for a period of time. Carr publicly celebrated that," said Newsom.

Newsom alleged a direct quid pro quo between Carr and broadcasting giant Nexstar. After Carr publicly urged broadcast stations to take action against late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, warning them to do it "the easy way, or the hard way," Nexstar pulled Kimmel from its ABC-affiliated stations, and Carr publicly celebrated the move. Carr's FCC then approved a $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar and Tegna, granting a waiver to bypass the congressionally mandated 39 percent national TV ownership cap. The combined company now reaches up to 80 percent of U.S. television households, according to reports.

"That was the return on that original investment of suppressing free speech," Newsom said flatly.

He laid bare the gravity of the scandal.

"It's not the corruption in Albania and Serbia. It's not the corruption in Saudi Arabia in Dubai and the UAE, and Vietnam, and all the golf courses and the deals that we see. It's not the meme coin, the stable coin. It's not the $400 million Qatari jet. It's not the $100,000 watch or the $60 Bible or the sneakers. It's not all that. It's even somewhat more insidious. That's about personal benefit for Trump. This is about structurally and institutionally reducing the fabric of truth and trust and transparency in the United States of America."

Newsom said the chill on free speech is already tangible.

"I don't think it, we have to know that comedians aren't going full throttle right now. Are throttling back," he said, calling it "total corruption."

He added that a California TV station refused to air his own press conference after he announced a lawsuit against the Nexstar merger.

"This is a big damn deal," Newsom said, calling Carr a "disgrace."