On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) condemned the shooting at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and said that while he dislikes rhetoric on both sides, “there’s also an asymmetry here. You have the president of the United States that sets the tone and tenor for this country.” And there’s “the sewer that we’re now living in, because of Donald Trump. And he’s allowed all of it — us to feel free to shove again.”
Host Bill Maher asked, “As the heat gets heatier, it must worry you, what you saw this weekend in Washington, with, not just coming after you, obviously, when you run for office, the horrible things people write and people say, and there is nothing off limits to take you down, and you’ve already been there, but it’s — it only gets worse the closer you get to the prize. What did you think when you saw that this weekend?”
Newsom responded, “Evil. You’ve got to condemn it, you’ve got to call it out. And so, I don’t like the rhetoric on either side. We all have to be held to a higher level of accountability. So, that’s easy to condemn. But there’s also an asymmetry here. You have the president of the United States that sets the tone and tenor for this country. And that’s not a partisan statement, that’s an institutional statement. He’s the president, and you just made the point. What did he do the day after? He talked about a beach photo and the indictment of one of his enemies. He talked about his ballroom, his Kremlin ballroom. He’s not doing anything to try to unite this country in any way, shape, or form. And, for me, that’s — to me, that’s the biggest reflection of this moment is how — it’s just the sewer that we’re now living in, because of Donald Trump. And he’s allowed all of it — us to feel free to shove again.”
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