AOC ‘Created-in-a-Lab’ but Still Better for Dems Than Newsom: Harmeet Dhillon [WATCH]

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sharply criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s potential 2028 presidential bid during an interview on the podcast “Pod Force One,” arguing that his record in California and his “state leadership failures” would undermine a national campaign.

Dhillon, who oversees the Civil Rights Division, spoke with The Post’s Miranda Devine in the episode released Wednesday, as reported by The New York Post.

Dhillon said Newsom “isn’t untested, like [former President Barack] Obama was, in a way” and claimed he has “notable personal foibles and failures.”

She also referenced an incident involving a member of Newsom’s staff who had claimed she was “involved in the firebombing of a judge’s house in South Carolina, which turned out to have been an accident.”

Dhillon suggested Democrats may look to younger figures in 2028. “I think that there are other more promising, for the Democrat Party, younger politicians,” she said.

“I think AOC is one of those fictionally created-in-a-lab characters that may be a more promising one for them.”

Image Credit: Grossinger – Shutterstock.com

She added, “I think that’s the bigger threat. The Zohran Mamdanis of the world, who are charismatic, attractive, diabolical, that’s the next generation.”

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Newsom, 58, traveled to Washington, DC, last week to request an additional $34 billion in wildfire recovery aid from Congress.

Officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency declined to meet with him.

His second-to-last year in office has been marked by clashes with the Trump administration over wildfire aid, energy policy, anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles that led to National Guard deployment, and public exchanges on social media.

Newsom’s recent public messaging — including statements in all capital letters and shifts toward more centrist positions — has fueled speculation about a 2028 run.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also rumored to be considering a presidential bid or a primary challenge against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.

Polling compiled by RealClearPolitics shows Newsom leading the early Democratic field with 28%. Former Vice President Kamala Harris follows with 20%, former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has 11.5%, and Ocasio-Cortez stands at 8.5%.

Dhillon’s Civil Rights Division has sued Newsom’s administration several times.

The most recent case involves Proposition 50, a redistricting plan the DOJ says “racially gerrymandered congressional districts in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Dhillon recused herself because her former law firm initiated the suit. She said the earlier controversy involving the firebombing of a South Carolina judge’s home had worsened her impression of Newsom’s staff.

Izzy Gardon, Newsom’s communications director, responded, saying, “Ms. Dhillon owes us a full apology for her blatantly false implications. Our office never threatened her, in contrast to the Trump Administration’s vile rhetoric against sitting judges.”

Gardon criticized Trump officials, saying they had referred to judges as “terrorists” and “legal insurrectionists,” and cited a tweet Dhillon reposted calling him a “woke douche bag.”

He added, “She and her associates own that dangerous, disgraceful, and un-American rhetoric, and she should apologize for that, too.”

Circuit Court Judge Diane Goodstein’s Edisto Beach home was engulfed in a fire on Oct. 5. Authorities have not determined the cause.

Goodstein had ruled against the Trump administration’s request for voter data before being overruled by the South Carolina Supreme Court.

In a post on X, Dhillon wrote that her division “will not stand for a state court judge’s hasty nullification of our federal voting laws” and “will allow nothing to stand in the way of our mandate to maintain clear voter rolls.”

Gardon posted in response, “A few weeks ago, one of Trump’s top DOJ officials publicly targeted this judge. Today, the judge’s home is on fire.”

A few weeks ago, one of Trump’s top DOJ officials publicly targeted this judge.

Today, the judge’s home is on fire. https://t.co/FEQb6zGubk pic.twitter.com/leD0G7bGoG

— Izzy Gardon (@iGardon) October 5, 2025

Dhillon said in the podcast, “They blamed me and Stephen Miller for that, and you get death threats because of that? I had to literally call the police over some threats that I received.”

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