Please welcome back to the show Governor Gavin Newsom.

-It's great to be with you. -Thank you so much.

Obviously, this is an incredibly busy time for you.

We really appreciate you making time for us.

You were in the studio three months ago,

a very different world than just three months ago.

-Yeah, isn't it amazing?

I mean, I was not only in your studio,

I was here at the state capital, announcing

a $6 billion budget surplus in the state of California,

record job growth, record reserves.

And I'm about to update the budget

and talk about unprecedented unemployment and deficits.

And every day, I go in front of the press,

and I announce the number of lives lost --

another 95 human beings lost their lives

in the last 24 hours here in California alone.

It's remarkable what a few months -- how things can change.

-You were the first governor to issue a stay-at-home order.

And I think, in these really fractured political times,

people might forget that no governor ever wants

to tell the people in their state to stay at home.

That must have been an incredibly hard decision.

Can you talk about the difficulty in making it?

-Yeah. It's a hard decision because --

just 'cause you say something

doesn't mean people are gonna do something.

But all this happens with the speed of trust.

And if you don't have the trust of folks,

you're doing the right thing for the right reasons,

things could fall apart.

What I was so humbled by, so amazed by,

was how 40 million people --

I mean, this is the fifth largest economy in the world --

it truly is a nation-state

in terms of the size and scale and scope --

across every geographic and political difference,

overwhelmingly abided by the stay-at-home order

for at least the last 60 days.

The challenge is we're now in a period

where people have cabin fever

and they're very, very frustrated

and want to come back.

And so this is, I think,

the most challenging period for all of us --

not just for the folks in California,

but we were really, really humbled

by how people took to heart this crisis

and recognized their imperative

to do the right thing as individuals

so that they can help the state of California.

-Californians, justifiably so, brag about their beaches.

We saw footage this past weekend

of a lot of people crowding the beaches.

You just gave a press conference

where, I think specifically in Orange County,

you reinforced the importance of staying at home.

Is that -- That must be hard.

You mentioned cabin fever.

You know, people want to be outside.

-No, I've spent my entire political life

opening up beach access,

fighting for people's right to their beach.

And this state -- it's one of the reasons

Horace Greeley said,

"Go West, young man, go West," in the 1850s.

It's our natural beauty --

an 1,100-mile coastline, 800 miles of pristine beaches,

none more beautiful than down in Orange County,

one of the really most magnificent,

bucolic parts of the world.

And so I hated to do it, but I had to do it

on the basis of the advice and counsel

from my public health directors.

They're all saying the only way we can set this course back

to re-opening with modifications, our economy,

is to see the kind of concentration

that we saw on those beaches over the weekend.

And so we're going to do our best,

try to be collaborative and cooperative.

Most of the beaches -- over 100 did everything right,

and the communities there really met the moment.

But, unfortunately, people were really eager to get out,

a little too much so last weekend.

And so I just want to slow that down,

decompress a little bit,

and then have a pathway to reopen very quickly.

-You have announced a four-phase plan to reopening.

One of the fears, of course,

is we've seen in countries that have started to re-open

that there's an uptick in cases.

How strictly do you adhere to this four-phase plan,

and how often during the day are you checking in with the data

to back up the choices?

-Every single morning.

We're driven by data. We're driven by health.

We're driven by evidence.

We're not ideological about any of this.

You know, a lot of pressure to quote, unquote,

"re-open the economy."

If that is the best public health decision, I'll make it.

But it's not right now.

It would be devastating.

Just ask the folks in Singapore, parts of China,

that island off the coast of Japan

that's part of Japan,

where they had all this progress,

and, literally, in a moment,

they unwound all of that progress.

They ran the proverbial 90-yard dash.

We don't want to do that.

So our health directors -- not just our state folks,

but the local folks will guide that.

And we're also guided by this --

a recognition in a state as large as ours

that each jurisdiction's a little bit different

than the other.

And so we're looking at some regional variations,

regional constructs

that may allow some parts of the state

to move a little bit sooner than other parts.

-The last time we spoke, we talked about the fact

that you have sued the Trump administration

over 70 times.

There has been criticism from both sides towards each other.

And yet, you've also praised the federal government response

in the way they've helped California.

Does -- To the point

that the President has actually released a new campaign

with and both you and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

saying nice things about him,

can we say that the relationship is decent at this point?

-Well, we've filed two new lawsuits

since we were last together,

and we will continue to fight to protect our values,

and when it comes to diversity, clean air, clean water,

the health of this state,

we will always stand on principle and stand tall.

But, you know, my mom taught me be polite,

and when someone --

you ask for help and someone actually delivers,

you have to acknowledge it.

And so all I can talk to is through the prism and the frame

of the state of California.

When I've called the administration,

when I've called the President directly,

not only is he available and answers,

but he's also delivered on a lot of the requests.

And so I can make it up --

I could try to avoid any kind of non-partisan behavior

and just play hard in my lane as a Democrat

and a tribal mind-set.

But we're in a crisis.

I'm trying to save 40 million Californians,

40 million Americans that live in California.

And I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican.

I care that you care about your kids

and your community and your loved ones,

and we're all in this together.

And so that's the spirit we're bringing into this.

But it doesn't stop us

from having our points of disagreement, I can assure you.