Newsom Clashes with Reporters; Microsoft's Layoff Controversy | 7/10/26 FIRST LOOK

0:03Hey everybody, I'm Dave Rubin and this is First Look. It's Friday, July 10th, 2026. We've got a packed show for you today. Gavin Newsom gets testy when pressed on missing tax returns while facing federal probes. Microsoft fires 1 ,600 Xbox employees right after securing thousands of H-1B visas for foreign workers. Let's dive in. California Governor Gavin Newsom grew visibly testy Thursday when reporters pressed him on why he has not released his tax returns since 2020. Newsom deflected hard, asking Donald Trump, when has he released them? And insisting the federal investigations into him, his wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, and people in his orbit are nothing more than a Trump-directed witch hunt to find something.

0:56Newsom has repeatedly promised to release his tax returns every year while in office, yet he has not publicly disclosed any returns beyond tax year 2020. He released several years of returns during his gubernatorial campaigns, but nothing since 2022. When reminded that he has tried to position himself as different from Trump, Newsom claimed he had released taxes for decades, but offered no clear explanation for the recent gap. The governor was speaking at an elementary school in Davis to highlight his education budget when the questions came up. He accused the Trump administration of weaponizing the Department of Justice and other agencies, calling it pretty disgraceful and the most corrupt administration in American history.

1:44He said the probes have forced people around him to hire private attorneys and claim Trump is going after his wife because officials couldn't figure out how to get me. The investigations include scrutiny of Siebel Newsom's taxes and matters tied to Newsom's former chief of staff, Dana Williamson. Williamson pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud, subscribing to a false tax return, and lying to the FBI. She faces sentencing in September. Last week, Williamson's attorney revealed that one of Newsom's appointees, lobbyist Alexis Podesta, wore a wire in the FBI's investigation.

2:27Newsom's office pushed back on claims that Podesta was part of his political orbit. Newsom announced the probes last month in a video and framed going public as table stakes because he is not timid about calling out abuses. He also took shots at Trump's finances, citing recent disclosures that Trump has raked in at least$2 billion since returning to the White House and pointing to Trump's meme coin as evidence of a great grift. Newsom offered almost no specifics on the investigations or when his missing tax returns would actually be released. He said he wanted to socialize the situation because enough's enough.

3:10This is classic deflection from a politician who loves to attack others while refusing basic transparency himself. Microsoft is facing major backlash after announcing it will lay off 4 ,800 employees total, including 1 ,600 from its Xbox division, while having been approved this year to hire 2 ,273 foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. The company is the sixth largest beneficiary of H-1B visas, a program dominated by workers from India. Microsoft has additional applications still pending. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma sent a memo citing weak business performance, saying the division is operating at margins three to ten times lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses, and that the company needs to reset.

4:04Critics on social media and in Congress are furious. Many are calling it industrial-scale job theft from Americans and accusing big tech of using the program to cut labor costs by replacing U.S. workers with cheaper foreign labor. One lawmaker, Representative Riley Moore of West Virginia, said the situation is insane and called for ending the H-1B program entirely. These companies, especially big tech, are abusing these immigration programs to replace American workers with foreign workers, Moore said. No more. It's long past time to end the H-1B scam. A Microsoft spokesperson said the layoffs were based on business need and that some H-1B employees were also impacted.

4:53However, online outrage has focused on the optics of firing Americans while continuing to bring in large numbers of foreign workers. Vice President J.B. Vance announced Tuesday that the Department of Labor has launched dozens of subpoenas and investigations into H-1B fraud. American jobs ought to go to American workers and not foreign fraudsters, Vance said. President Trump had previously tried to impose a$100 ,000 fee on companies seeking H-1B applications, though a federal judge struck down the order. This is a clear example of why the H-1B system needs serious reform or elimination. When companies are laying off Americans while importing foreign labor at scale, something is fundamentally broken.

5:43And that's your first look this Friday. Quick recap. Gavin Newsom dodges questions about his missing tax returns and lashes out at federal investigations into his circle. Microsoft cuts 1 ,600 Xbox jobs while having been approved for thousands of H-1B visas, drawing sharp criticism over prioritizing foreign workers. We'll keep following all of it. I'm Dave Rubin. Thanks for starting your day with First Look. See you Monday.