Newsom, who was formally sworn into his second term on Monday, participated in a march to the state Capitol in Sacramento, an intentional contrast on the anniversary of the attempted insurrection that took place in Washington.

"There are still forces in America that want to take the nation backward," Newsom said. "We saw that two years ago, on this day, when the unthinkable happened at a place most Americans assumed was invincible, an insurrectionist mob ransacking a sacred pillar of our democracy, violently clashing with sworn officers upholding the rule of law."

Newsom said the attack on the Capitol, which the U.S. House committee investigating the insurrection concluded was inspired by Trump's words in the days leading up to the formal certification of the presidential vote, had not begun with Trump, but was "decades in the making."

And, he said, that movement still exists, led by "red state politicians and the media empire behind them."

"They're promoting grievance and victimhood, in an attempt to erase so much of the progress you and I have witnessed in our lifetimes," Newsom said. "They make it harder to vote and easier to buy illegal guns. They silence speech, fire teachers, kidnap migrants, subjugate women, attack the Special Olympics, and even demonize Mickey Mouse."