Matt Bush, FISM News
California governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti have given curious responses when defending their actions at a recent NFL playoff game.
The two prominent Democrats, along with Democratic San Francisco Mayor London Breed were caught on camera without masks, in defiance of a state mask mandate that their offices put into effect. The trio posed for pictures, mask free, at the NFC Championship game this past Sunday, in what many saw as further evidence of the “rules for thee, not for me” mentality indicative of many Democrats across the country.
The pictures were taken by NBA star Magic Johnson and posted to his Twitter account:
Hanging out at SoFi Stadium today! pic.twitter.com/XfotiRLGz9
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) January 31, 2022
According to the California Department of Public Health, the statewide mask mandate was extended to include the dates from December 15, 2021, to February 15, 2022. The mandate in Los Angeles County, where the stadium is located, includes all indoor public places and outdoor mega events of 5,000 people or more. Sofi Stadium additionally has its own mask policy requiring all fans to remain masked unless they are eating or drinking.
In light of these rules, the three officials appeared to be in direct violation of multiple rules – rules that they have championed over the past two years, while lambasting any opponent who questioned the effectiveness of their mandates.
Taking a picture with a celebrity like Magic Johnson, who has over 5 million followers on Twitter, was sure to get noticed, and it did.
Once the politicians were caught, they tried to downplay the incident, in what many saw as both disingenuous and comical.
Yesterday, according to Deadline, Garcetti claimed that he wore his mask throughout the game except for the moment the pictures in question were taken. He also claimed he “held his breath” for the picture until he put his mask back on:
I’ll take personal responsibility….If it makes you and everyone else happy — or even the photographs with people where literally I’m holding my breath for two seconds — I won’t even do that.
For his part, Gov. Newsom said, “I was trying to be gracious, took the mask off for a brief second. But no, I encourage people to continue to wear them.” He continued to say he was “judicious” and “exercised sound judgment” in his decision of when to and when not to wear his mask despite the fact that the written rules only provide for the removal of a mask when the person is in the act of eating or drinking.
Newsom and Breed have both faced their similar previous controversies. Breed was photographed at a San Francisco nightclub singing and dancing maskless, indoors. She has remained defiant and unapologetic to this day.
Newsom, on the other hand, was photographed at an upscale restaurant with a group of unmasked people sitting shoulder-to-shoulder in the middle of a statewide surge in cases. This incident, along with the fact that he instituted some of the strictest COVID restrictions of any state in the union throughout the pandemic, resulted in the governor facing a recall election last year, which he won.
The NFC Championship game between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams occurred at Sofi Stadium which also will be the site of this year’s Super Bowl. It was the first time that one stadium has hosted both the conference championship game and Super Bowl in the same year.
At the Super Bowl, each attendee will be given and required to wear a KN95 mask.