Mel Gibson Blasts Newsom In New Recall Announcement

LOS ANGELES, CA — Actor Mel Gibson became the face of yet another effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom Wednesday.

The actor, whose star fell following a drunk driving arrest and antisemitic rant in 2006, has recently had yet another career shift: politics. Last month President Donald Trump named him "special ambassador to Hollywood" by tweet, and on Wednesday, the "Braveheart" actor took to the podium at a press conference in Altadena, contending the governor has "brought us nothing but crime, acute homelessness, horrendous inflation — I mean this industry that I work in, the film industry this used to be the mecca of filmdom. It is no more."

He also blamed California and Los Angeles leaders for last month's catastrophic fires.

The issue is close to his heart. The actor lost his Malibu home to the Palisades Fire.

Appearing in the Eaton Fire-ravaged foothills of Altadena with the recall group Saving California, Gibson said residents deserve better from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and state leaders such as Newsom.

“Gov. Newsom and Karen Bass let us all down,” said Gibson. “California was ill-prepared and had scant resources to deal with the inevitable fires. They knew that. So are we supposed to believe our elected officials didn’t know that?”

Saving America announced plans to serve recall papers to Newsom within two weeks.

Saving America has said an army of signature-gatherers are poised to capitalize on voter anger over the handling of the wildfires.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the group will need to gather 1.3 million signatures over the next 160 days. A similar effort by the group Rescue America, failed to gather enough signatures last year.

There have now been eight recalls targeting Newsom, but only one with enough steam to make it to the ballot. That was in 2021, when voter sentiment soured over pandemic shutdowns. The recall was rejected by 62 percent of voters.

Newsom acknowledged the latest recall in a statement released by his office to FOX11.

"Governor Newsom is focused on leading the state and the recovery from the LA fires - not politics. Readers still should have the context that the same group of far right MAGA acolytes have launched 7 different recall attempts against the governor since he’s taken office, each of which have failed spectacularly. Even Republican Party leaders have criticized these repeated attempts as a brazen campaign finance "grift," and the recall organizers have been sued by their own donors for pocketing funds raised previously. For example, the recall organizers didn’t even turn in a single signature in their last attempt in 2024, and just a few weeks ago their petition was rejected by the Secretary of State for failing to follow simple signature rules."

Newsom's term ends in 2027.