Newsom denies pressuring California AG into Paramount settlement after liberal backlash

Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif., denied Wednesday that he pressured California Attorney General Rob Bonta to settle his antitrust lawsuit with Paramount Skydance Corp. ahead of its proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

Bonta originally led a group of state attorneys general who filed a lawsuit challenging the massive $111 billion deal that was initially expected to close during the third quarter of this year. By Monday, however, Paramount announced that a settlement had been reached, paving the way for the merger to continue.

Critics of the merger have accused Bonta and Newsom of caving to Paramount amid the settlement after reports suggested CEO David Ellison was considering moving the company's headquarters out of California if a deal was not made, an accusation Newsom denied.

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"I didn’t pressure anybody," Newsom told Axios' Alex Thompson. "I made the point. I’ve made it very publicly and consistently and been reported maybe two or three hundred different ways that we, me, many folks, including the mayor, soon-to-be governor-elect [Xavier] Becerra and others, preferred, in the words of Rob Bonta himself, that he focus on getting this done at the boardroom, not the courtroom."

"And the minute that Rob said that on CNBC, we amplified that, said this was a better approach. That was the framework, and he worked hard to deliver for California, and I think he did," Newsom continued.

Bonta confirmed the settlement during a press conference on Monday, although he insisted that it was not done in support of the merger itself.

"This settlement is not a vote of support for this merger; it is not a blessing of the broader merger," Bonta said.

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"I am always willing to come to the table for honest, good-faith negotiations, and when we can find a strong solution that protects competition and consumers, I’d rather resolve the case, the issue, in the boardroom instead of the courtroom," Bonta added. "That’s what happened here." 

Fox News Digital reached out to Newsom and Bonta's office for comment but did not immediately receive a response. 

"It’s all left-wing virtue-signaling until economic reality slaps you in the face," Media Research Center Business associate editor Joseph Vazquez told Fox News Digital. "Governor Gavin Newsom knows that he’s essentially turned his state into a pariah for business, and Attorney General Bonta’s Marxist legal vendetta against the bourgeoisie involved in the Paramount/Warner deal was a perfect example of that. It was good antitrust fodder for the radical left for a time, until push came to shove."

"The last thing the Democrats — or Newsom, for that matter — need at this point in a midterm election season is for a punitive tax hell like California to be pinned as the reason a multibillion-dollar media giant like Paramount eventually flees Los Angeles for a more business-friendly, Republican state like Tennessee or Texas, regardless of whether the merger risks another hole in an already-thinning left-wing media firewall or not," he continued. 

"In the end, Democrats and their media allies know that the economy is a big issue for voters, and giving the Republicans another anecdote to skewer their disdain for business — even for the lucrative Hollywood market — isn’t politically expedient in the slightest," Vazquez added. 

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Ahead of the settlement, several progressive and Democratic figures urged Bonta not to settle with Paramount, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. Warren later released a statement condemning the settlement on Monday.

"Allowing one Trump-aligned, foreign-owned conglomerate to dominate American news and entertainment is a disastrous outcome," Warren said. "After the Trump administration ran an apparently corrupt antitrust review process to wave through a blatantly illegal merger, this settlement greenlights an anti-monopoly disaster that will result in higher prices and fewer jobs, and enables a handful of billionaires to call the shots in the American media."

"Corporate executives for aspiring monopolies are always quick to offer unenforceable promises to close a deal, but it is workers and consumers who ultimately pay the price," Warren continued. "The new Paramount behemoth is a clear candidate for antitrust scrutiny in a future pro-competition Administration."