Former Hillary Clinton aide Amanda Renteria, a late entry to California’s gubernatorial race, says Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s past sexual misconduct disqualifies him from holding higher office, and suggested the Democratic frontrunner should resign from his current position.
“If he was in the Legislature right now, he’d be called out, and like what we’ve seen, being forced out,” Renteria told the Sacramento Bee. “We’ve got to be sending the message that the more power you have, the more responsibility you have to protect others.”
In 2007 Newsom reportedly had an affair with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, who worked with him and who was also the wife of his chief campaign adviser, Alex Tourk. At the time, Newsom was reportedly separated from his first wife (and current Fox News host), host Kimberly Guilfoyle.
Renteria reportedly added that “a boss having sex with his employees is an unacceptable situation,” and noted that “no one should be beyond that accountability. The bar needs to be higher. And in fact, the bar is lower here.”
Newsom has repeatedly apologized for his past mistake, saying he “learned an enormous amount” from the shameful experience.
“I acknowledged it. I apologized for it. I learned an enormous amount from it,” Newsom said last month. “And I am, every day, trying to be a champion and a model” for youth and societies “to get to the roots causes,” he reportedly said.
Newsom married his second wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, in 2008.
Renteria’s sudden entrance into the packed race last month raised some eyebrows and many questions.
“It’s very strange for multiple reasons,” Gil Duran, a Democratic campaign consultant, told Bay Area public radio station KQED. “For one thing, it’s extremely disrespectful to abandon your boss in the middle of an election to run for the office above his. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that.”
Some believe Renteria may have entered the race to take votes away from former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is virtually tied with Newsom, the frontrunner in the race. Renteria, like Villlaraigosa, is the daughter of Mexican immigrants.
Adelle Nazarian is a politics and national security reporter for Breitbart News. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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