Newsom blasts Fox News primetime over gun coverage: ‘It’s a disgrace’
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) criticized Fox News primetime hosts over coverage of mass shootings and gun violence in the U.S., calling it a "disgrace."
"It's a disgrace what they say, what these people say every single night," Newsom told reporters, according to ABC 10. "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."
Newsom had been dealing with the aftermath of a shooting in which a gunman shot and killed 11 people at a Lunar New Year's celebration in Monterey Park, California on Sunday.
He appeared to criticize the network and right-leaning lawmakers, blaming them for not acting to support gun safety after series of mass shootings spanning more than one decade – from Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, to the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, Calif. in 2018 and and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas in 2022.
"'It’s not the right time, not the right time, not the right time.' Rinse, repeat. Not the right time, Sandy Hook, not the right time, rinse, repeat. Uvalde. Remember Uvalde? Remember? Rinse, repeat," Newsom said. "You don’t remember the Borderline here, 13 people, 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."
Newsom had been visiting victims of the Monterey Park shooting when he said he got a call about another shooting Monday night - this time in Half Moon Bay in which seven people had been killed.
"At the hospital meeting with victims of a mass shooting when I get pulled away to be briefed about another shooting. This time in Half Moon Bay. Tragedy upon tragedy," he tweeted.
Fox News did not immediately respond for request to comment.