WPRO News

Gov. Gina Raimondo took a backhanded swipe at President Donald Trump and lashed out at local television news during a wide-ranging talk at Brown University Tuesday.  

Recapping the outcome of the 2016 election, the first-term Democratic governor said, “a lot of people didn’t vote in November. I’ll say it, after Bernie (Sanders) lost a lot of people stopped caring. And if good people don’t get engaged, bad people get in office and do bad things to good people. That’s a fact.” 

In a nearly hour-long talk moderated by Cathy Russell, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues during the Obama administration, Raimondo also took aim at television news, citing her weekly “Connect to the Capitol” segment on Channel 10, WJAR-TV. 

“Broadcast news has become almost like talk radio. You know, I do this one on one thing with live TV and it started out, even when I started two years ago it as a nice back and forth, and now they call it, “going one on one with the governor”. Like it’s all a fight, you know, motif. So, we’re constantly trying to figure it out, we’re relying a lot more on social media. 

She took several questions from faculty and students, and one student who said he was from Chicago but did not give his name, said he worked this summer for the state. 

“I worked in the Executive Office of Commerce this summer, totally drank the Kool-Aid”, I totally love everything you guys are doing,” he said. “When I hear the word Raimondo, I think economy.” 

“Nice,…success!,” said Raimondo. 

He went on to ask whether she would support legalizing recreational marijuana. 

“My position is I’m open to it, I’m not rushing to do it, because every other state has struggled, and when I talk to Governor(John)  Hickenlooper of Colorado, he says “Gina avoid it as long as possible”. Among other things, she expressed concern about edible pot getting into the hands of children.