California Governor Gavin Newsom in dialogue with the Ethiopian-Eritrean Community of California. September 9, 2021

Yebeg siga alitcha at Messob | Photo by Bill Esparza

The 100,000 + strong combined Ethiopian-Eritrean Community of California, that could be a swing vote in favor of defeating the recall election targeting California Governor Gavin Newsom, met with the governor. Supporting a program of universal healthcare, immigration rights, as strong stand against racism and expressing their concern for the Biden Administration’s hostility towards the Ethiopian government of Abiy Ahmed, the Community pledged they would work for the defeat of the recall election. Its spokespeople, both Ethiopian and Eritrean Americans, called on the governor to use his influence to press the national Democratic Party leadership to end their support for the outlawed terrorist group, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

Governor Newsom’s remarks mostly centered around the effort to defeat the recall, detailing the right-wing racist, anti-immigrant agenda of the recall initiative’s sponsors, one of whom called for putting computer chips in the bodies of all immigrants because “it works well on animals.”

Although Newsom is concentrating on the recall, he took note of the comments and said he’d look more carefully into the issue after the recall election is over. There were 325 participants on the Zoom conference, the overwhelming percentage of which were from California’s Ethiopian and Eritrean Communities.

The sound the first three minutes is a bit muffled, but improves after that. It is Governor Newsom who is speaking at the beginning, mentioning that his sound had been muted..