Andrew Gillum recalls infamous night in hotel: I was ‘lying in my own vomit’
Tamron Hall interviews Gillum, the former Tallahassee mayor and rising Democratic star, on Monday's second-season premiere of 'The Tamron Hall Show.'
Veteran journalist Tamron Hall is calling her exclusive interview with former Florida gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum “one of the most difficult” of her career.
In the interview, for which Gillum sat with his wife, R. Jai, he told Hall that he didn’t recognize himself in a photo that circulated on social media showing the man “literally lying in my own vomit.” Gillum was photographed naked on a bathroom floor with a pillow and sheets soiled with body fluids.
The photo was taken in the spring of this year, when the former gubernatorial candidate was allegedly present during an incident in Miami in which police responded to a drug-related distress call at Mondrian South Beach. Responders treated a man identified as Travis Dyson, who Gillum described as a friend.
Gillum himself was extremely inebriated. Officers later performed a second “welfare check” on the hotel to scrutinize him, and he was found in stable condition.
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In 2018, Gillum was a rising star in the Democratic Party. The former mayor of Tallahassee was a strong candidate for governor of Florida in a tight battle with Trump acolyte Ron DeSantis. The high-profile race garnered prime time television coverage for its debates, and Gillum even earned an endorsement from former president Barack Obama.
Still, Gillum lost the race by just over 30,000 votes.
In a July Instagram post, Gillum candidly detailed his battle with depression and alcoholism, conditions that were exacerbated by his loss to DeSantis.
“I went away to rehab to focus on my issues with alcoholism, having grown up in a household where my father battled an addiction to alcohol and later died from that addiction,” he said. “I knew well the toll it took on my father’s dreams and ambitions.”
In his sit-down with Hall, Gillum said that he “has cried every day” since the incident.
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Hall recently told People, in an preview of their talk, that she asked Gillum if he thinks that he can and will return to politics.
“We know that on both sides of the aisle, politicians have returned from scandals that people were certain would end it all for them,” Hall said, “I think with Andrew, he’s first focused on his children, his wife, and his career is very important to him.”
The Hall-Gillum interview will air as the second season premiere of The Tamron Hall Show on Monday.
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