As Gavin Newsom travels around the country promoting his book — a memoir widely seen as a first step on his journey toward a 2028 presidential campaign — the California governor made appearances in South Carolina and New Hampshire, two early Democratic primary states that are important stops for any likely candidate.

For a trip signaling presidential ambitions, Newsom’s choice of interviewer is revealing. On Thursday night, he was interviewed in Portsmouth, N.H., by Jack Cocchiarella, a self-described “progressive political pundit,” part of a group of Gen Z influencers with growing clout among Democratic voters. 

Courting those content creators has been central to Newsom’s efforts to build an engaged national audience. 

He’s adopted a go-anywhere media strategy that has put him in conversation with everyone from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, to conservative Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro. On Thursday, at the event with Cocchiarella, Newsom said he would sit for a conversation with the far-left streamer Hasan Piker, one of the most recognizable names among young political influencers — and who has an unshakeable predisposition toward antisemitism.

In recent months, Cocchiarella has adopted a stridently anti-Israel posture that mirrors some of the incendiary rhetoric frequently employed by Piker, though Cocchiarella isn’t yet as prominent as Piker.

But the Columbia University graduate has quickly gone from being a small-time digital strategist for Democratic candidates in Florida to a YouTuber who has scored interviews with some of the most important members of the Democratic Party. In the 20 months since he posted his first YouTube video, he has garnered 1.47 million subscribers, with some of his videos fetching up to 5 million views. Most of them feature Cocchiarella attacking President Donald Trump.

While Cocchiarella has developed a somewhat cheeky style drawing on Democrats’ opposition to Trump, he’s far less aggressive than Piker, and more in line with the talking points of mainstream Democrats. He’s interviewed many of them: Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Mark Warner (D-VA); House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY); and Reps. Greg Landsman (D-OH), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Eric Swalwell (D-MA) all appeared in video interviews with Cocchiarella, as did Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. 

But against this backdrop, Cocchiarella also has a combative streak. In October, weeks after conservative activist Charlie Kirk was killed, Cocchiarella drafted a tweet responding to news that Turning Point USA, the organization Kirk created, would be putting together an “All-American” halftime show to compete with the Super Bowl’s official halftime show, where the Puerto Rican artist Bad Bunny was set to perform. “Shoot him again,” Cocchiarella wrote. 

The message was never posted on X, but he shared a screenshot of the draft to a private Instagram story. “Thoughts?” Cocchiarella wrote. He did not respond to a request for comment. (A screenshot of the post was obtained by Jewish Insider.)

Israel did not appear to be an issue Cocchiarella cared much about until last year. “Also f*** Israel just to be clear,” he wrote in a post on X in October. “STOP SENDING MY F***ING TAX DOLLARS TO ISRAEL,” he wrote in December. “Israel is a terrorist state that threatens and kill [sic] Americans,” Cocchiarella posted this week, days after the U.S. and Israel began military strikes against Iran. 

In December, Cocchiarella interviewed Newsom and asked him about whether he would accept money from AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby.

“AIPAC, DMFI [Democratic Majority for Israel], the Israel lobby at large. This has become a big conversation, [for] someone like myself, and I think at this point a broad majority of Democrats are saying we don’t want candidates who are taking money from AIPAC. We don’t want candidates who are beholden to the Israel lobby,” Cocchiarella said. 

In response, Newsom said he had never received financial support from AIPAC — which only contributed to federal campaigns — just like he has never accepted donations from the tobacco or oil lobbies. 

On Thursday, at the New Hampshire event, Cocchiarella asked Newsom to clarify comments he had made two days earlier suggesting that Israel could be considered an “apartheid state.” Cocchiarella said some online conversation has suggested Newsom is just following the polling, that “you don’t actually believe what you said there,” that “it’s kind of like a shape-shifting move.” But he said it reminded him of Newsom’s decision in 2004, when he was mayor of San Francisco, to give out same-sex marriage licenses — much to the chagrin even of other liberal Democrats in the state who had not yet come out in support of gay marriage.

“History echoes a little bit in the same way,” Cocchiarella said. 

In response, Newsom spoke about growing up deeply connected to the Bay Area Jewish community and even traveling to Israel with his family. 

“I want to level set on that basis. What I can’t accept today, though, is what Bibi Netanyahu is doing in Israel, and I just can’t countenance that,” said Newsom, who compared his anger at Netanyahu’s efforts to annex the West Bank to the way he felt when same-sex marriage was not yet legal.

“I can’t sit back in the spirit of this book, in the spirit that defined marriage equality, in terms of my values and beliefs, and watch that,” said Newsom. 

Before Newsom’s interview with Cocchiarella, a spokesperson said the governor often sits for interviews with people whose views diverge from his own.

“Of course the governor doesn’t agree with every statement of every person he ever sits down with,” Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s communications director, told JI. “He is proud to engage with people across the political spectrum — from Ben Shapiro to Mayor Mamdani. The governor believes in free speech and open debate, something Donald Trump, who dines with neo-Nazis like Nick Fuentes, clearly doesn’t understand.”