Because Andrew Gillum was one of the national media’s favorite losers in the 2018 midterms, it’s only natural that even after he was found passed out drunk on the floor of a hotel bedroom accompanied by a male escort, they’d be eager to see him bounce back and land on his feet.
The process for that began in earnest this week after Gillum, the married Democrat who lost his bid for Florida governor, posted a video on Instagram discussing his time at rehab and his ongoing therapy.
“Andrew Gillum opens up about rehab and therapy,” read the Politico headline covering the video. The story said Gillum “opened up for the first time Monday about his experiences battling alcoholism and depression since entering rehab.”
Gillum’s “experiences battling alcoholism and depression,” by the way, included a bender back in March, where police found him incoherent and in the curious company of a muscled-out younger man who had performed in pornography and claimed to be an escort. Pills and alcohol bottles scattered throughout the room gave a clue as to what was going on, though I’ve personally still got some questions about the yellow- and brown-stained sheets and pillowcases that were seen in police photographs.
Gillum, the husband of wife R. Jai Gillum and the father of three children, had only identified the other man as a “friend.” Police showed up at the scene only after a third man said he came to the room and found it in disarray with Gillum vomiting and the apparent escort on the verge of an overdose.
The New York Times followed up on Politico’s tale of Gillum having “opened up” by talking to a few of his friends.
Incidentally, they had nothing but nice things to say about the family man, including that they never knew him to have substance abuse issues and that his little episode was likely the result of him feeling terrible that he lost his race for governor and let all his supporters down.
One of the people in the story seriously said that. “Losing hurts,” said Democratic Florida state-level Sen. Oscar Braynon, a friend of Gillum. “And he lost on a big scale. That can do a number on people.”
Liberals to this day whine about the “$5 billion in free airtime” President Trump received in the 2016 election (as if most of that airtime wasn’t spent calling him a sexist, racist, homophobic bigot). But $5 billion couldn’t buy a Republican that kind of coverage from the New York Times if one had been found doing what Gillum did.
I hope Gillum’s trip to rehab wasn’t too expensive. But at least for him, the media is getting ready to pick up the rest of the tab.
