California Governor Gavin Newsom has been doing a good job of getting his name out there in the national media over the last year or two, in what has clearly been an orchestrated plan in preparation for a presidential run. And on Sunday he finally fessed up that yes, he's probably going to run.

It's been almost two years since Gavin Newsom challenged Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to a bizarre debate on Fox News, despite the fact that Newsom was not running for anything at the time, and DeSantis was soon to be the also-ran in the Republican race for president, against a re-ascendant Donald Trump. It was clear then that Newsom was preparing the ground for an eventual presidential run himself, and that preparation has only continued with appearances on Bill Maher's Real Time show, his dudebro-courting podcast in which he interviewed right-wing figures, and his aggressive campaign to mock Trump using his own bombastic rhetoric and methods on social media.

Now in a Sunday interview on CBS Sunday Morning, Newsom came clean for the first time when answering the question of whether he's going to run for the presidency.

When asked whether it was fair to say that he was giving "serious thought" to a run after the midterms are over next year, Newsom said, "Yeah. I'd be lying, otherwise. I’d just be lying, and I can’t do that."

He added, "I think the biggest challenge for anyone who runs for any office is, people see right through you. If you don’t have that ‘why,’ you're doing it for the wrong reasons. Faith will determine that."

And he spoke vaguely about waiting to see who else joins the field of candidates — maybe, pointedly, implying that he's waiting to see if Kamala Harris chooses to run again — saying, "I'm looking forward to who presents themselves in 2028 and who meets that moment. And that's the question for the American people."

Speaking of Harris, she was just on a British morning show, Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, as she continues her tour promoting her campaign memoir 107 Days. Harris said that she believed a woman would be elected US President at some point, and that "possibly" it could be her. She also said, "I am not done. I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones," and she dismissed polls showing her trailing other potential candidates, saying, "If I listened to polls, I would have not run for my first office, or my second office — and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here."

It was the strongest indication so far that Harris is, indeed, intending to try one more time for the presidency, after coming within a couple million votes spread across a few key states from beating Trump last year.

Harris announced in July that she would not be seeking the California governor's office. And, in her memoir, she makes clear that her relationship with Newsom isn't particularly close.

Meanwhile, there's been a rumor the last couple of months in Sacramento that Senator Alex Padilla might want to quit the Senate and run for governor instead in 2026. Assuming he won, which might be a big assumption at this early date, Padilla could easily return the favor to Newsom, who appointed him to the Senate, and appoint Newsom to his Senate seat pending a special election — giving Newsom even more of a national platform from which to campaign for higher office, and giving Newsom a soft landing should he fail to win a Democratic primary for president.

Of course, that would mean that highly diverse California would be back to having two white guys representing it in the Senate for the first time since the early 1990s. But it's a distinct possibility, unless Newsom finds himself too busy on the campaign trail.

Previously: After Release of Memoir, Kamala Harris Sets Up Tense Days Ahead Between Her and Gavin Newsom

Top image: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (C), First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom (R) and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris (L) greet supporters during a No on the Recall campaign event at IBEW-NECA Joint Apprenticeship Training Center on September 08, 2021 in San Leandro, California. With six days to go until the California recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom was joined by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris as he continues to campaign throughout the state. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)