Add Democratic Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo to the ever-growing “do as I say, not as a do” list.
The governor on Dec. 7 told state residents to “stay home except for essential activities” and to “wear a mask anytime you’re with people you don’t live with.”
Apparently, going to a wine bar is “essential” for Raimondo, who was photographed four days later enjoying a night out.
“Erica Oliveras, who took the photo, says she and Governor Raimondo were both at Barnaby’s Public House in Providence on Friday night for a wine and paint night,” ABC-6 reported.
Oliveras defended the governor, saying Raimondo “only took her mask off whenever she was drinking her wine.”
But others were not so happy.
“Shame on you, Gina,” Providence resident Susan Goodman told ABC-6. “She shouldn’t even be at an event like that. You can drink wine at home. I’m an experienced wine drinker, Gina, do it at home.”
A spokesperson for the governor’s office told the station that Raimondo didn’t do anything wrong. “The governor had dinner at a local restaurant with her husband, and had her mask on anytime she was not eating/drinking,” Josh Block said.
One day after Raimondo hit the wine bar, Rhode Island Department of Health Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott tested positive for COVID-19. That prompted Raimondo to self-quarantine because she had shared the stage with Alexander-Scott Thursday night at a briefing, NBC 10 News reported.
In a Twitter post on Dec. 7, Raimondo said: “It’s week two of our pause. I know it’s been hard, but I want to thank every Rhode Islander who’s following our guidance. Please, stay home except for essential activities & wear a mask anytime you’re with people you don’t live with. Together, we can turn our case numbers around.”
Last Friday, Raimondo issued an executive order extending the state’s coronavirus restrictions through the end of the year. Under the rules, indoor and outdoor gatherings are limited to only members of the same household and restaurants and bars can only seat one household per table inside and two households per table outside.
In addition, “indoor recreational or entertainment businesses and historical/cultural establishments” including those within restaurants or bars, must close. Masks are required.
Raimondo isn’t the first Democrat to be caught out.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife attended a birthday party on Nov. 6 — after he had locked down the state — with a dozen friends at the expensive French Laundry restaurant in Napa north of San Francisco. In September, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, was caught not wearing a mask while inside an airport, even though she has called for a mandatory rule to require all airline passengers to wear masks.
And on Aug. 31, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) — who has long advocated full lockdowns and a national mask policy — was caught dropping into a hair salon in California ordered closed by the governor and walking around without a mask.
Ronna McDaniel, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, summed it up succinctly in a single tweet.
“Gavin Newsom at a posh restaurant. Dianne Feinstein not wearing a mask. Nancy Pelosi at the salon,” she wrote on Twitter on Nov. 18. “The list goes on and on with Democrat leaders from California and beyond saying: Lockdowns and restrictions for thee, but not for me!”