Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 8.08.22

Bill Maher Rips Gavin Newsom's Florida Attack Ads: 'I Have Felt Freer' in Sunshine State

Bill Maher Rips Gavin Newsom's Florida Attack Ads: 'I Have Felt Freer' in Sunshine State

Posted by Charlie Kirk Staff - 8.08.22

Liberal HBO “Real Time” host Bill Maher is taking another Democrat to task over what he sees as an over-the-top criticism of a Republican leader.

Maher mocked California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, over his recent political ad attacking Florida and its GOP governor, Ron DeSantis, over Newsom’s claim: “Freedom is under attack in your state. I urge all of you living in Florida to join the fight — or join us in California, where we still believe in freedom.”

“Freedom to choose. Freedom from hate, Freedom to love. Don’t let them take your freedom,“ Maher quoted Newsom’s ad, before noting further: “I guess my question is: Who’s got the freedom fight now?

“Because I could see the Republicans saying, ‘Well, we stand up for your right to have your guns, we don’t [do] COVID mandates, you know, you have your freedom to be free,'” the host continued.

Then Maher, a California native, noted directly: “I certainly don’t always feel free in this state, I must say, and I have felt freer in Florida.”

Maher has defended Florida in the recent past over the state’s parental rights legislation that the woke left has savaged because it forbids teachers from presenting LGBTQ and transgender materials to the youngest school students K-3:

If people don’t know, this is something DeSantis is about to sign. And I guess it’s a reaction to Republicans who feel that there’s too much talk in lower grades. I think it’s only — they’re talking about kindergarten to third grade. So we’re talking about very young kids who, you know, as always with this stuff, you know this. It’s not like there’s no kernel of truth in that maybe kids that young shouldn’t be thinking about sex at all.

After news reported noted that Newsom planned to run ads in the Sunshine State, Dave Abrams, a spokesperson for the GOP governor’s re-election campaign, told The Daily Wire: “Gavin Newsom might as well light a pile of cash on fire. Pass the popcorn for his desperate attempt to win back the California refugees who fled the hellhole he created in his state to come to Florida.”

“The people of Florida pay no mind to the pathetic smear campaigns from the Democrats and their allies in the corporate media,” Abrams noted further. “We’re too busy enjoying the freedom Governor Ron DeSantis has created in the Sunshine State.”

Florida’s chief information officer James Grant added in a tweet: “That time when @GavinNewsom spent ‘Newsom for Governor’ dollars to run for Governor of, wait for it… Florida? All while Californians continues [sic] exercising the freedom to vote with their feet and leave California. Rich.”

Jeremy Redfern, spokesman for the Florida Department of Health, added, “Shouldn’t you be worried about California?” in a tweet that included several photos of garbage along a beach and homeless camps.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle in late June, Newsom’s campaign spent $100,000 on ads to run on Fox News affiliates in Florida.

CNBC reported in June that around 360,000 people fled California in 2021.

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