California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pulled no punches on Monday with his blistering critique of Fox News, which he accused of “not doing a damn thing about gun safety, not a damn thing for decades” while visiting victims of a weekend mass shooting at a Monterey Park ballroom dance hall in which 11 people were killed.
“It’s a disgrace what they say, what these people say every single night,” Newsom told reporters about prime-time personalities on the conservative Rupert Murdoch-owned channel.
“There’s xenophobia, they’re racial priming, what they have done to perpetuate crime and violence in this country, by scapegoating, and by doing not a damn thing about gun safety, not a damn thing for decades,” he continued.
Watch the video here:
Newsom then summarized what he said was the message from Fox News following each horrific mass shooting:
“‘It’s not the right time, not the right time, not the right time.’ Rinse, repeat. ‘Not the right time, rinse repeat, Sandy Hook, not the right time, rinse, repeat. Uvalde.’ Remember Uvalde? Remember? Rinse, repeat. You don’t remember the Borderline here, 13 people, that was a few years ago, you’ll have to look that one up. Rinse, repeat. Not a damn thing they do. And we know it. And we allow them to get away with that.”
During his visit, Newsom tweeted that he was “pulled away to be briefed about another shooting,” the killing of seven people in Half Moon Bay.
“Tragedy upon tragedy,” he wrote.