Only ten days after announcing he would run for California state governor, long-time Bitcoin proponent and billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya has backed away from the idea in a Feb. 2 episode of The All In Podcast. Palihapitiya, who started investing in Bitcoin in 2012, has been a vocal critic of current California Governor Gavin Newsom, tweeting the hashtag “RecallGavinNewsom” on Jan. 26. The tweet linked to a site saying “Chamath for California Governor” and containing several policy promises. However, he’s since thought better of the plan.
Palihapitiya plans to focus more on his business than politics.
In response to a question about his run for governor, Palihapitiya said, “I’m not ready to do any of that.” Instead of focusing on a political career, he said he would rather focus on where his business is going. “I do think it’s worth figuring out what is the conflict of interest laws and what do you have to do if all of this were to come to pass. I cannot make a credible decision without all of that,” he said during the podcast.
California governor under scrutiny for mishandling COVID 19 response.
The petition to recall Newsom over the mishandling of the state’s response to COVID-19 has not yet garnered enough signatures to put the recall in motion. The petition, launched in June last year, has attracted 1.3 million signatures but requires 195,000 more before Mar. 17. Regardless of the outcome, the website outlining his positions remains up, and he continues to use his appearances on All In to discuss political issues. “The government should be doing the things they need to do for people to have an even starting line,” he said, in a typical example. Earlier, Palihapitiya proclaimed Bitcoin to be the “single best hedge against the traditional financial infrastructure.”
