Rhode Island Dem Gov Gina Raimondo Admits Her “Free College” Proposal Isn’t Really Free

After months of pitching her stalled college tuition proposal as “free” to Rhode Islanders, Failed Democrat Governor Gina Raimondo appears to be changing her tune. Despite having pitched “two years of free college for every Rhode Island high school graduate” for months before meeting opposition from her own party in the state legislature, Raimondo now claims in an interview with the New York Times that her proposal “isn’t really free.” Raimondo then quickly tossed her staff under the bus, stating that she was convinced to use the word “free” by her staff in order to “capture people’s attention.”

Raimondo’s shift in language comes just a couple weeks after she responded to news that Rhode Island is facing an over $100 million budget shortfall by saying that she would be open to scaling back her proposal. But even with her own party’s leaders like Democrat House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello asserting that “it’s probably unrealistic to think of that right now,” Raimondo appears to be strategically retreating from her signature proposal after dramatically overselling it, even using her allies at the Democratic Governor’s Association to run early campaign ads to back the initiative.