GAI Research Director Jedd McFatter, co-author of a new book revealing corruption in California politics, responded to comments made about the book by California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Fool’s Gold has already generated headlines since its March 11 release. Reporters seized on the details of a scheme thoroughly documented in the book of how Gavin Newsom secretly funded his own statue in the mayor’s office of San Francisco.
Newsom came under questioning after the revelation from Fool’s Gold that he quietly bankrolled a monument to himself at San Francisco City Hall during his 2004-2011 tenure as mayor.
The book shows through records from California’s “behested payments system” of donor funds solicited on his behalf to finance a $97,000 bust of himself. According to the book, $10,000 of that money came from his own companies, Balboa Cafe Partners and PlumpJack Management Group.
Critics on social media branded him a “narcissist” and accused him of “peak leftist arrogance,” with one writing, “If only he cared half as much about fixing his state as he does about immortalizing his own ego.”
At the time, Newsom called the bust “strange” and “awkward” when it was built, claiming ignorance of its funding despite reports of “Newsom supporters” footing the bill with private cash.
Newsom’s office responded to the ‘bust’ criticism.
“To imply the Governor personally funded or proposed this effort is categorically false,” a spokesperson for Newsom said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “As is customary in the city, the effort was independently proposed by a nonprofit and funded by private donors — not taxpayers… This was reported at the time and isn’t news now.”
The statement says nothing about the contributions made by the two companies he controls.