California Gov. Gavin Newsom is now acknowledging missteps in “communicating” COVID information to the public in the face of a massive recall effort launched against him by millions of his constituents.
The governor, whose already sketchy reputation hit a new low last fall when he was caught going out to dinner at a swanky restaurant in violation of his own guidance telling residents to stay home, is now facing an official recall vote after a petition to boot him from office garnered more than 2 million signatures, far more than the 1.5 million necessary to hold a special vote on the measure.
But while Newsom admitted that dining out with his political buddies while forcing other Californians to hang out at home and keeping small businesses closed to the point of bankruptcy may have been a “mistake,” he’s now blaming errors in “communicating” with the public for why…well, so many people now hate his guts.
Related: Gov. Gavin Newsom ‘Worried’ About Efforts To Recall Him
"We were communicating with counties and businesses and sectors and industries, not with the public, what that modification meant and what it didn’t mean,” Newsom said, referencing the controversial and baffling decision his office made in January to reverse their own COVID goals and allow counties to reopen short of the previously set standards for cases and hospital capacity – a decision that, notably, came just after the inauguration of President Joe Biden.
"And in hindsight, clearly, we could have done a much better job by informing the public what those modifications meant,” Newsom said.
The California governor recently admitted that he's "worried" about the recall effort - not the first to be launched against him, but the first to have garnered enough signatures to qualify for a public vote.
Since January, Newsom’s office has changed the metrics by which they’re allowing counties and businesses to reopen, causing some to wonder if politics, not public health, is driving the governor’s decisions.
(Cover Photo: Gage Skidmore)