California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is the last person anyone would have expected to defend President Donald Trump.
But these are very unusual times, and Newsom did indeed refuse to bash Trump on the liberal daytime talk show The View on Friday — even when co-host Joy Behar gave him every opportunity to do so.
“Lately you’ve been praising him for the help he’s giving you,” Behar told Newsom, as shown in video shared by the Daily Caller. “Well, of course, you have to because look at how he treats governors who don’t kiss his ring — the governor of Washington, the governor of Michigan — he said they were not appreciative and told Mike Pence, ‘Don’t call them back.'”
Behar twists Trump’s words
Even in her opening salvo, Behar didn’t get the context of her quote correct. Trump didn’t command Pence not to call them back as Behar was suggesting.
Instead, as the Washington Examiner reported, Trump said he told Pence that it would be waste of time to do so, but said he expected the vice president to call them anyway. “If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call. He’s a different type of person. He will call quietly, anyway,” the president told reporters, according to the Examiner.
This misconceived view of Trump informs Behar’s question to Newsom: “Do you feel like you have to feed this guy’s ego to get the respirators and to get the PPEs [personal protective equipment] — is that what’s going on?”
But Newsom refused to take the bait.
“All I can say is from my perspective, the relationship has been strong,” the Democrat governor told Behar on Friday, according to Fox News. “And I’m not doing it to kiss the ring, I’m not doing it in a way that… I’ve just been forthright with the president. He returns calls, he reaches out, he’s been proactive.”
Newsom won’t take the bait
While admitting that he isn’t expecting the federal government to give California everything it needs to fight the coronavirus outbreak, Newsom also credited Trump during the broadcast with sending a Navy hospital ship, the USNS Mercy, to help with the need for more hospital beds and critical medical supplies like face masks, Fox noted. Take a look at video of the interview, courtesy of the Daily Caller:
Of course, the media hasn’t been happy to see a Democrat like Newsom praising Trump and reporting good things about him, let alone passing up an opportunity to bash him.
If only Newsom’s all-in-this-together attitude would spread as contagiously around the country as the coronavirus.
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