Gavin Newsom, the Democrat California Governor, attempted to call out Fox News host Jesse Waters, attempting to squarely place the blame on him directly and personally for “aiding and abetting” the recent alleged violent assault against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi.
Newsom attempted to make the argument that Watters had ultimately “dehumanized” Speaker Pelosi — while also making the claim that he had directly assisted in the creation of a climate in which political violence could be seen as reasonable.
WATCH:
Gavin Newsom Attacks Fox’s Jesse Watters for His Negative Coverage of Paul Pelosi and Its Dehumanizing Effect pic.twitter.com/W11OnWdlFH
— Alexandra Datig | Front Page Index 🇺🇸 (@alexdatig) October 31, 2022
“I’ve seen the dehumanization of Nancy Pelosi. I don’t think anyone’s been dehumanized like she has consistently. I watched this one guy, Jesse Watters or something on Fox News, and what he’s been saying about Paul Pelosi the last five, six months, mocking him consistently. Don’t tell me that’s not aiding and abetting all of this. Of course it is,” Exclaimed Newsom.
“They’re sowing the seeds, they’re creating a culture and climate like this,” the west coast governor went on. “I mean, look online. Look at the sewage that is online that they amplify on these networks and in social media to dehumanize people like Nancy Pelosi and other political leaders.”
Watters issued his response during the Monday night broadcast of his show “Jesse Watters Primetime,” stating, “Gavin Newsom thinks if you mock a Democrat, it puts them on a target list. We’ve always said, Gavin’s biggest flaw? He’s not very smart.”
If this was not bad enough, Newsom was not the only person to try and hurl blame for the event onto various Republican politicians in the wake of the attack. Old Uncle Joe made the argument that Rhetoric from the far right was actively pushing more people to commit political violence — all while Andrea Mitchell, an anchor with MSNBC, made the claim that the offender who allegedly went after Pelosi was made to do so by the very rhetoric that had ended up causing the January 6th riot on Capitol Hill.
Margaret Brennan, an anchor from CBS, went even further as part of a Sunday segment of “Face the Nation,” pressing Congressman Tom Emmer (R-MN) on whether or not various Republican ads calling out Pelosi for years of failed policies could be what was radicalizing people towards more violence.
WATCH:
.@TomEmmer calls out the media for trying to blame Republican rhetoric for the Paul Pelosi attack.
Why didn’t they blame Dems when a Bernie Sanders supporter shot Steve Scalise? pic.twitter.com/Ko6iTLZ4UM
— Mike Berg (@MikeKBerg) October 30, 2022
“I never saw anyone, after Steve Scalise was shot by a Bernie Sanders supporter —” exclaimed Emmer, who was promptly interrupted by Brennan.
“I’m talking about right now!” she stated. “It just is happening now.”
” — equate Democrat rhetoric with those actions,” Emmer went on. “Please don’t do that.”
“No, no, okay,” shot back Brennan. “Looking at your candidates, Republican candidates have spent more than $116 million on ads that mention Speaker Pelosi by name in this cycle. If this is about the issues, why shouldn’t you make it about the issues? Why not depersonalize it?”
Brennan continued to push the argument that Republicans should stop talking about Pelosi in ads to stop random people from trying to target her.
