Gavin Newsom has shifted his attention to JD Vance. The California governor, who never misses an opportunity to criticize Donald Trump, is now calling out the Vice President for failing to provide food to the poor. Newsom pointed out that Vance, who is a Catholic convert, is failing miserably at upholding one of the key tenets of his faith.
Newsom’s comments came amid the Trump administration actively resisting all efforts to restore the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. The Democratic governor reminded Vance that providing food to the poor is “fundamental to advancing God’s will.”
On Sunday, Newsom, who is a lifelong Irish Catholic, lectured JD, who is a Catholic convert, on the fundamental lessons of their shared faith.
Speaking to Jake Tapper on State of the Union, Gavin Newsom said, “I mean, Old Testament, New Testament. What’s the fundamental thing that connects every—I mean, from John to Matthew to Proverbs? It’s this notion of hunger, feeding the poor, the sick, the tired, this… it’s not an option, it’s central to advancing God’s will.”
.@realDonaldTrump and @JDVance‘s refusal to provide SNAP benefits to Americans in need isn’t just illegal — it’s immoral. pic.twitter.com/hUSqMtgbf3
— Governor Gavin Newsom (@CAgovernor) November 9, 2025
The CNN host then brought up the subject of Vance’s resistance. “But think about the state of mind of the vice president. How do they—how do they honestly—how do you square the circle when you go to a prayer breakfast? How do you square the circle?” said Newsom, elaborating his criticism on the subject.
The California governor then pointed out how he is upholding his faith, stating that about 5.5 million SNAP benefits have been restored through November in his own state. He lashed out at the Vice President for not doing so, called it shameful.
On Sunday, Newsom said, “The federal government said it in the lawsuit, that they want to use it as a bargaining chip, a bargaining chip to end this shutdown. That’s shameful. It’s never happened in U.S. history.”
JD Vance: “It’s an absurd ruling because you have a federal judge effectively telling us what we have to do in the midst of a Democrat government shutdown… What we’d like to do is for the Democrats to open up the government — then we can fund SNAP, and we can also do a lot of… pic.twitter.com/PV77KgDTPn
— Patriot4Life (@Patriot4Life72) November 7, 2025
The potential 2028 Democrat nominee added, “Now we need to win the heart and mind of the president of the United States, not just the vice president of the United States, to do the right damn thing.”
JD Vance converted to Catholicism in 2019 at the age of 35. Although Newsom called him out for failing to uphold his faith, the Vice President himself previously admitted that he is a “baby Catholic.”
“I recognize very much that I am a baby Catholic… If you ever hear me pontificating about the Catholic faith, please recognize it comes from a place of deep belief, but it also comes from a place of not always knowing everything all the time,” Vance said earlier this year during a speech at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast.
Meanwhile, when it comes to the SNAP benefits, JD previously called the ruling that it had to be restored “absurd.” He also added that no federal judge would be able to convince him otherwise on the matter.
