Newsom backs Musk against California regulators who punished SpaceX for backing Trump

In an unusual episode amid the election frenzy, California Governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged that, in his opinion, California officials made a mistake in denying flight permits to SpaceX because of the political stances of its owner, Elon Musk.

After participating in a campaign event for Kamala Harris, the Democratic governor endorsed the entrepreneur in words picked up by Politico: "I’m with Elon." Newsom acknowledged that he "didn’t like" that the California Coastal Commission voted against expanding the number of launches the company can do at a military base in Santa Barbara because of Musk's political stances.

"You can’t bring up that explicit level of politics," he said, referring to transcended recordings of the committee hearing that resulted in the refusal to increase operations in which commissioners can be heard alleging, among other things, that Musk had "aggressively injected himself into the presidential race" and had "made it clear what his point of view is."

SpaceX sued the commission just a couple of days ago, accusing them of "naked political discrimination." Newsom said that while he would not get involved in the lawsuit, he broadly agreed with the company's allegations. "These are friends of mine that said that," he acknowledged before asserting that he did not control the commission.

The Democrat and Musk often exchange criticism, more so since the latter turned to the Republican Party. The entrepreneur has organized a series of talks to support Donald Trump's campaign in Pennsylvania.