A California Democrat is taking fire after she was caught eating outside at a restaurant immediately after she voted to ban outdoor dining at restaurants.
“Just hours after Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl voted to ban outdoor dining at L.A. County’s 31,000 restaurants over COVID-19 safety concerns, she visited a restaurant in Santa Monica, where she dined outdoors,” Fox 11 reported. “FOX 11 received multiple tips that shortly after her vote on Tuesday, Kuehl was seen dining outside at Il Forno Trattoria in Santa Monica, an Italian restaurant near her house that she has previously described as one of her ‘favorite’ restaurants.”
A spokesperson for Kuehl, a former Democratic California state senator, confirmed that she ate at the restaurant in a statement to Fox 11:
She did dine al fresco at Il Forno on the very last day it was permissible. She loves Il Forno, has been saddened to see it, like so many restaurants, suffer from a decline in revenue. She ate there, taking appropriate precautions, and sadly will not dine there again until our Public Health Orders permit.
Fox 11 noted that during last Tuesday’s L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting, Kuehl referred to outside dining as “a most dangerous situation.”
“This is a serious health emergency and we must take it seriously,” Kuehl said in voting to ban outdoor dining at restaurants. “The servers are not protected from us, and they’re not protected from their other tables that they’re serving at that particular time, plus all the hours in which they’re working.”
Democrat San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo is also in hot water after being accused of violating coronavirus restrictions for Thanksgiving after he told residents in his city to cancel “big gatherings.”
“While few details about Liccardo’s Thanksgiving celebration have been released, it appears the gathering did elude guidelines frequently touted by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department, aimed at slowing the spread of COVID-19,” NBC Bay Area reported. “A recent spike in coronavirus cases has prompted tighter restrictions across the Bay Area and the potential for California to exceed its capacity for hospital beds within weeks.”
Reporters from the local affiliate learned that he celebrated Thanksgiving with his elderly parents with “an unknown number of other guests.” His office did not disclose how many people attended the dinner, how many different households attended, and whether those who attended followed safety guidelines like wearing masks.